THE  S 

OF 

sfinsoN 


Divisioa    w  o  1  o  O  O 

t   V^-J  •«0   ^<—     I 


Sectioa 


THE   PHOENICIAN    SAMSON. 


THE 

STORY  OF   SAMSON 

AND 

ITS  PLACE  IN  THE  RELIGIOUS 
DEVELOPMENT    OF     MANKIND 


PAUL  CARUS 


WITH    MANY    ILLUSTRATIONS 


CHICAGO 
THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

LONDON  AGENTS: 
Kkoan  Paul,  Trench,  Trubner  &  Co    Ltd. 

1907 


Copyright  by 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 

1907. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  SAMSON  STORY. 

Introduction I 

Roskoff  and   Steinthal 4 

The  •  Problem  of  Originality 6 

The  Romance  of  Alexander 7 

The.  LocaHzation  of  Myths I2 

-Hebrew  Literature  and  Its  Redactors 14 

The  Sun  in  Hebrew  Literature 16 

The  Date  of  the  Samson  Epic 18 

THE  HISTORICAL  BACKGROUND, 

The  Paganism  of  Dan 20 

Shamash  and   Samson 24 

Dagon  of  the  Philistines 24 

Yahveh  Stronger  than  Dagon 26 

Fish  Deities '.  . .  29 

Dagon,  a  God  of  Agriculture 31 

The  Symbol  of  the  Fish 34 

Beelzebul  and  Beelzebub 36 

THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON  LEGEND. 

Beth   Shemesh 38 

The  Valley 38 

Mahaneh-Dan 42 

Tibneh  and  Ascalon 43 

Etam  and  Lehi. 45 

Gaza 45 

SAMSON'S  BIRTH. 

The  Biblical  Account 52 

The  Holy  Men  of  the  Semites 55 

The  Kid  Offering 59 


IV  THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 

PAGE 

Theophanies 60 

The  Meaning  of  Nazir 66 

Gentile  Nazirism 67 

The   Etymology   of   "Nazarene."    69 

The  Nomad  Life  of  Israel 72 

SAMSON'S  LIFE.     THE  BIBLICAL  ACCOUNT. 

Samson's  Marriage  and  What  Followed 74 

Samson  Carries  OfT  the  Gates  of  Gaza 81 

vSamson  and  Delilah 82 

SAMSON'S  ADVENTURES. 

The  Twelve  Labors 89 

The  Lion  and  the  Bee 90 

The  Foxes  with  Firebrands 92 

Semele  and  Dido 93 

Samson   in   Hiding 95 

The  Jaw-Bone  of  an  Ass 96 

The  Gates  of  Gaza 107 

The  Web  of  Delilah 108 

Samson's  Seven  Braids 109 

The  One-Eyed  One no 

Samson's  Death 112 

SOLAR  MYTHS. 

Mythical  Traits  of  the  Samson  Story 113 

The  Numbers  Seven,  Thirty,  and  Twelve 114 

The  Lion  and  the  Dragon 117 

Hercules  and  Heracles 119 

Izdubar  the  Helper 120 

The  Twelve  Tablets  of  the  Izdubar  Epic 123 

Izdubar  and  Immortality 128 

Samson  and  Heracles 130 

DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SUN. 

Samson  a  Prototype  of  Christ 133 

The  Phoenician  Melkarth 136 

The  Dying  God 137 

Osiris 148 

Samson's  Tomb 151 

Why  the  Resurrection  of  Samson  Was  Suppressed 152 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  V 

PAGE 

The  Redaction  of  the  Samson  Story 154 

Conclusion 155 

APPENDIX. 

Mythopoeic  Erudition.     By  George  W.  Shaw 161 

How  History  Is  Transfigured  by  Myth.   A  Reply  by  the  Author.  164 

Shemesh  and  Samson.    By  George  W.  Shaw 173 


.  n 
rsa- 


'      LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

The  Phoenician  Samson,  Froiitisf>icce.* 

The  Brook   Sorek I 

Vine-Covered  Tree 9 

Alexander  Fighting  with  Beast-Headed  Men lo 

Alexander  and  the  Monsters / lo 

Fantastic  Representations  of  the  Adventures  of  Alexander  the 

Great 1 1 

Ruin  Near  Baal-Bek 20 

The  Holy  Oak  of  Tel  El  Kadi :  The  Ancient  Site  of  Dan 22 

The  Grotto  of  Pan  at  the  Source  of  the  Jordan 23 

Assyrian  Fish-Priest 29 

A   Fish   Sacrament 29 

A  Fish  Deity 30 

Babylonian  Fish  Deities 31 

A  Babylonian  Fish  God 33 

Christ  as  a  Fish  on  the  Rood 35 

Christian  Symbols  on  a  Cornelian  Seal 35 

Symbols  on  a  Lamp  Found  in  the  Catacombs 35 

Gaza  as  Seen  from  the  Valley 38 

Beth  Hanina  in  the  Valley 39 

Upper  Wadi  Es-Sarar 40 

Shrine  of  the  Well  Shamat 41 

Site  of  Ancient  Zorah 42 

Ruins  of  Tibneh :  Site  of  Timnath 44 

Gaza 46 

In  the  Outskirts  of  Gaza 47 

Hebron 48 

View  of  Hebron  from  Adam's  Oak 49 

Site  of  the  Gates  of  Gaza 50 

*  After  a  photograph  by  Arthur  E.  Henderson,  published  in  the  Records 
■"  the  Past.  This  colossal  statue  of  Melkarth  was  found  in  Cyprus  and  is  now 
^   'e  Museum  at  Constantinople. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  Vll 

PAGE 

Site  of  Beth  Shemesh 52 

The  Annunciation  of  Samson's  Birth.     By  Rubens 54 

The  Burning'  Bush.     By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld 61 

The  Still  Small  Voice.' 63 

The  A^alley  of  Nazareth 70 

Samson's   Drudgery 74 

Samson  and  the  Lion,    By  Raphael 75 

Samson's  Marriage  Feast.     By  Rembrandt 'jy 

Samson  Slaying  the  Philistines.     By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld.  .  80 

Samson  Carries  Off  the  Gates  of  Gaza 81 

Samson  and  Delilah.    By  Dore 83 

Delilah's  Treachery.     By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld 84 

"Made  Fast  with  Shackles."     By  Max  Klein 86 

Samson's  Death.     By  Dore 87 

Izdubar  and  the  Lion 89 

Lion  and  Bee :  Mithraic  Plaque 91 

Dido  on  the  Pyre.    By  Ferd.  Keller 94 

Perseus  with  Medusa's  Head 97 

Bel  Merodach  Fighting  Tiamat  with  Sickle  Sword 98 

Bel  Merodach  Fighting  Tiamat  with  Thvmderbolts 98 

Silvanus  with  Sickle 99 

Kronos  with  a  Sickle-Sword 99 

00 

03 
04 
04 

05 
06 
07 
07 
09 
II 

13 

15 
16 
16 
16 

17 
18 


Water  Flowing  from  the  Jaw-Bone.     By  Guido  Reni.   .  .  . 

Donkey-Headed  God  on  the  Cross:  "Spotfcnicifix." 

Seth 

Seth  and  Anubis 

Dionysus  on  the  Ass 

Christ's  Entry  Into  Jerusalem 

The  Gates  of  Heaven  Opened  to  Shamash , 

The  Babylonian  Prototype  of  the  Pillars  of  Heracles 

Sun-God  with  Seven-Rayed  Halo , 

Samson's  Death.    By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld 

Izdubar  Struggling  with  the  Ox 

The  Twelve  Labors  of  Heracles , 

Melkarth  of  the  Phoenicians 

Death  Taking  Away  Semele  with  the  Thunderbolt  of  Zeus. 

Heracles  Entering  the  Dragon , 

Lion-Killing  Hero  of  Khorsabad 

Siegfried  and  the  Dragon 

Izdubar  Conquering  the  Lion 

Izdubar  Strangling  a  Lion 


2/1 
'sa- 


Vlll  THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 


PAGE 


The  Adventures  of  Izdubar. 124-125 

Izdubar  and  Eabani 127 

Sitnapishtim,  the  Babylonian  Noah 128 

Izdubar  and  Arad-Ea 129 

The  Farnese  Heracles 131 

Egyptian  Emblem  of  the  Sun 133 

The  Ascent  of  Heracles  to  Olympus. 134 

Descent  of  Dionysus  to  Hades 135 

Siegfried's  Death.     By  Hermann  Hendrich.   , 139 

Christ's  Entry  Into  Jerusalem.     By  Dore 145 

Samson's  Death 147 

Easter  Morning.    By  Era  Angelico 1 56 


4Si6 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  SAMSON  STORY. 

INTRODUCTION. 

SOME  time  ago,  in  connection  with  Mr.  Evans's  study 
of  the  mythical  Napoleon,  I  made  some  editorial  com- 
ments on  myth  in  history,  and  alluded  incidentally  to  the 
Biblical  legend  of  Samson  as  a  solar  hero.  I  deemed  this 
theory  thoroughly  established  and  was  quite  astonished 
to  be  called  to  account  by  Mr.  George  W.  Shaw,  one  of  our 
readers  and  contributors,  and  a  good  Hebrew  scholar  to 
boot,  well  versed  in  Bible  lore.^  I  must  further  admit  that 
Mr.  Shaw  is  not  isolated  in  his  opinion,  for  not  only  Bib- 
lical encyclopaedias,  both  German  and  English,  but  also 
the  best  secular  works,"  such  as  the  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica.  repudiate  the  idea  that  the  story  of  Samson  should 
be  a  myth.  These  circumstances  made  me  reconsider  my 
opinion,  but  after  all,  I  do  not  feel  compelled  to  make  any 
radical  change  in  my  views.  Having  collected  the  evi- 
dence, I  find  that  the  case  is  very  instructive  because  it 
throws  much  light  on  the  religious  development  of  the 
Bible. 


*  An  article  of  his  entitled  "The  Period  of  the  Exodus"  appeared  in  The 
Monist  for  April,  1906. 

"One  quotation  shall  suffice:  "Der  Versuch  Samson  als  den  phonizischen 
Herakles,  den  Sonnengott,  zu  erklaren,  scheitert  an  konkreten  Einzelheiten 
und  den  lokalen  und  nationalen  Motiven  der  Sage."  Brockhaus,  Konvcrsa- 
tions-Lexikon,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  991. 


2  THE    STORY    OF    SAMSON. 

Mr.  Shaw's  challenge  is  the  immediate  cause  of  the 
present  treatise,  and  I  am  grateful  to  him  for  his  protest. 
I  have  devoted  considerable  time  to  a  reconsideration  of 
the  problem,  but  to  re-read  the  story  as  told  in  the  Bible, 
to  compare  doubtful  passages  with  the  original  Hebrew, 
to  peruse  critically  and  with  care  what  has  been  written  on 
the  subject  by  my  predecessors  in  this  field  (especially 
Roskoff  and  Steinthal),  to  make  a  resume  of  the  old  argu- 
ments, to  add  some  new  ones  which  I  discovered  by  the 
way,  and  finally  to  condense  and  rearrange  the  entire  sub- 
ject in  the  present  essay,  has  been  a  genuine  pleasure  to 
me.  I  only  wish  that  the  perusal  of  it  all  will  be  as  inter- 
esting and  instructive  to  my  readers  as  the  writing  of  it 
was  to  me. 

The  main  part  of  this  investigation  of  the  Samson  story 
first  appeared  in  The  Monist  for  January,  1907,  but  the 
original  essay  in  its  present  shape  in  bookform  has  been 
amplified  not  only  by  quoting  the  Biblical  text  in  its  best 
and  most  up-to-date  translation,  but  also  by  some  additional 
material,  among  which  there  may  be  much  that  would 
seem  redundant  and  superfluous  to  Old  Testament  special- 
ists and  theologians.  But  let  those  who  criticize  me  for 
introducing  information  concerning  the  development  of 
Hebrew  religion  and  literature,  theophanies,  or  elementary 
topics  of  Greek  and  Roman  mythology,  bear  in  mind  that 
all  these  matters  are  by  no  means  generally  known,  and 
this  little  book  is  meant  for  the  public  at  large  and  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  specialist  only  in  those  passages  which  con- 
tain new  arguments,  as  for  instance  my  comparison  of  De- 
lilah's web  to  the  folklore  gossamer  stories,  and  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  last  song  of  Samson  where  he  speaks  of 
himself  as  one-eyed. 

I  will  say  at  once  that  Mr.  Shaw's  position  contains 
a  truth  which  I  do  not  mean  to  question,  and  which  I  had 
insisted  upon  from  the  start.    An  account  which  is  decked 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY.  3 

with  mythological  arguments  should  not  for  that  reason 
be  regarded  as  absolutely  unhistorical,  for  it  is  quite 
natural  that  myth  enters  into  the  fabric  of  history,  as  I 
have  pointed  out  in  my  introduction  to  Mr.  H.  R.  Evans's 
book  on  the  Napoleon  myth.^  Yet,  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  myth  has  crystallized  in  a  definite  form  and  localized 
in  well-known  places,  we  must  not  jump  to  the  conclusion 
that  its  historicity  is  well  established.  It  is  true,  as  Mr. 
Shaw  remarks,  that  "thinkers  are  becoming  more  anxious 
to  find  history  in  myth,"  but  one  reason  why  our  critics 
are  returning  to  a  conservative  consideration  of  traditions 
after  a  period  of  hyper-criticism,  is  given  in  the  counter- 
statement,  also  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Shaw,  that  they  "detect 
myths  in  history."  It  is  so  natural  for  man  to  associate 
things  of  the  same  type  that  the  deeds  of  a  hero  are  told 
and  retold  with  reminiscences  of  the  mythology  of  his  ideal, 
his  tutelary  patron  saint,  or  god,  and  thus  the  two  stories, 
fact  and  fancy,  history  and  myth,  are  imperceptibly  fused 
until  the  hero  is  deified  and  the  historical  tale  changed  into 
a  myth. 

The  story  of  Samson  is  of  special  interest  and  perhaps 
more  instructive  than  any  other  legend  or  fairy  tale  in  the 
Old  Testament ;  but  that  it  is  legend  and  not  history  must 
after  all  be  conceded  by  all  exegetists  and  higher  critics, 
both  liberal  and  orthodox.  It  seems  to  me  out  of  the  ques- 
tion that  there  is  any  one  who  would  believe  the  story  liter- 
ally, or  lay  much  stress  on  the  Biblical  account  as  inspired 
by  the  Holy  Ghost.  If  there  be  any  one  left  who  is  naive 
enough  to  take  the  old  orthodox  standpoint  with  respect 
to  the  Samson  story  I  should,  indeed,  like  to  know  how  he 
can  make  his  conception  of  God  agree  with  the  lack  of 
dignity  and  decency  displayed  in  these  primitive  traditions. 

Samson  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  Heracles  was  to 
the  Greeks,  or  Siegfried  to  the  Germans,  Melkarth  to  the 

^  The  Napoleon  Myth.    Chicago:  The  Open  Court  Pubhshing  Co.,  1905. 


4  THE    STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

Phoenicians,  Izdubar  to  the  Babylonians,  etc.,  but  that  he 
should  have  been  in  office  as  a  judge  or  magistrate  of  Israel 
is  nowhere  apparent  in  the  original  story.  Samson  of 
course  is  a  Hebrew  as  much  as  Siegfried  is  a  German  and 
Heracles  a  Greek.  He  is  the  national  hero  of  the  tribe  of 
Dcj^and  the  legendary  features  of  the  story  are  too  pal- 
pable to  make  it  probable  that  there  are  many  theologians 
now  living  who,  after  a  reconsideration  of  the  facts,  would 
still  defend  its  historical  character. 

Nevertheless,  I  will  grant  that  (in  accord  with  the 
principle  previously  enunciated)  there  is  more  history  in 
myth  than  has  formerly  been  assumed,  and  I  am  perfectly 
willing  to  say  that  a  man  by  the  name  of  Samson  (i.  e.. 
Sun-like)  may  have  lived;  that  he  may  have  been  born 
after  thejashion  described  in  the  book  of  Judges  (chapter 
xiii)  ;  that  he  may  frequently,  on  account  of  various  love 
affairs,  have  become  entangled  in  brawls  with  the  Phil- 
istines ;  that  these  events  were  praised  among  his  country- 
men as  deeds  of  valor,  and  that  his  adventures  finally 
landed  him  in  prison.  It  is  a  little  hard  to  believe  that  he 
found  honey  in  the  carcass  of  a  lion,  and  that  he  died  by 
breaking  down  two  columns  of  a  pagan  house,  incidentally 
killing  thereby  more  than  a  thousand  people;  but  even  if 
miracles  be  granted,  I  fail  to  see  how  these  concessions 
can  change  the  character  of  Samson  as  the  hero  of  a  solar 
myth. 

ROSKOFF  AND   STEINTHAL. 

The  first  to  devote  a  special  investigation  to  the  legend 
of  Samson  was  Dr.  Gustav  Roskoff,  professor  of  Prot- 
estant theology  at  the  University  of  Vienna,  who  in  i860 
published  an  essay  on  the  Samson  legend,  its  origin,  form 
and  significance  compared  with  the  Heracles  myth,^  and 

^  Die  Simsonssagc  nach  ihrcr  Entstchung,  Form  und  Bcdcufung,  uiid  dcr 
Heracles  Mythus.    Leipsic  :  iS6o. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY.  5 

I  have  found  him  stih  quoted  as  an  authority  upholding 
the  historical  character  of  the  Hebrew  hero.  He  does  so 
indeed,  but  not  without  serious  limitations.  Conservative 
writers  who  rely  on  him  usually  overlook  the  fact  that 
Roskoff  treats  almost  every  single  incident  of  the  narra- 
tive as  legendary  and  merely  claims  that  there  are  "factic 
moments""  in  the  story.  Whenever  he  discusses  details 
he  alludes  to  them  as  "impossibilities  and  incredibilities" 
which  "in  legends"  are  a  matter  of  course,  excusing  them 
with  such  words  as  (page  67)  "The  saga  does  not  care 
for  the  credibility  of  the  represented  events  or  related 
items."  He  accepts  Samson's  nazirdom,  his  heroism,  and 
his  death  as  "factic  elements,"  but  that  is  all,  so  far  as 
I  can  see;  for  he  says,  "The  legend  (Sage)  elevates  the 
hero  at  the  cost  of  details  and  historical  by-work,  and  the 
higher  he  rises  the  more  neglected  are  the  latter"  (page 
76).  Roskoff  argues  "Legend  is  a  child  of  the  heart  (Ge- 
miitli)  and  knows  no  reflection"  (page  71)  ;  he  suggests 
that  the  narrator  and  his  hearers  were  not  critical,  and 
thus  the  legend  finds  no  difficulty  in  the  strange  ignorance 
of  Delilah  who  ought  to  have  known  that  Samson  was  a 
Nazir  and  ought  to  have  been  familiar  with  the  mysterious 
quality  of  his  hair  (page  71).  Roskoff  goes  so  far  as  to 
concede  that  the  "sidereal  relation  permeates  the  entire 
Samson  saga"  (p.  no),  but  he  claims  that  this  pagan 
feature  of  it  "has  been  overcome  by  the  idea  of  Yahveh." 
Roskoff's  concessions  grant  the  whole  case  and  so  the  be- 
lievers in  the  historicity  of  Samson  can  hardly  claim  his 
authority  for  a  denial  of  the  mythical  character  of  the 
story.  The  Yahveh  idea  is  to  him  the  saving  element 
which  renders  the  story  religious  and  makes  the  historicity 
of  some  of  its  moments  probable ;  and  yet  even  this  is  of  a 
aoubtful  value,  for  Roskoff  admits  that  "the  spirit  of  Yah- 
veh comes  over  Samson  and  gives  him  strength  to  accom- 

"  The  original  reads:  faktischc  ]\Iomcutc,  page  39. 


6  THE    STORY    OF   SAMSON. 

plish  his  deeds  not  otherwise  than  Homeric  heroes  are  as- 
sisted by  the  gods"  (page  45).  Such  is  the  view  of  a 
professor  of  theology  who  interlards  his  expositions  now 
and  then  with  pious  contemplations ! 

Prof.  H.  Steinthal,  of  the  University  of  Berlin,  criti- 
cizes Roskoff  severely  for  his  theological  bias.  He  blames 
him  especially  for  calling  Samson  "the  hero  of  prayer" 
(p.  70)  who  prayed  to  Yahveh  and  whom  Yahveh  helped; 
but  Professor  Steinthal  is  unfair  in  not  allowing  his  prede- 
cessor the  right  to  apply  the  story  in  his  own  way.  Do 
not  the  Greeks  of  classical  antiquity  and  modern  admirers 
of  Greek  culture  see  in  Heracles  the  ideal  man,  and  so 
why  should  not  Roskoff,  a  believer  in  Biblical  traditions, 
idealize  the  hero  of  the  Jews  in  a  way  to  suit  his  personal 
preferences?  Though  Steinthal  is  perhaps  more  at  home 
in  the  field  of  comparative  folklore,  being  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  this  branch  of  learning,  his  own  essay  on  Samson 
scarcely  contains  much  more  as  to  the  facts  and  perhaps 
not  fewer  points  for  criticism  than  Roskoff's  little  book. 

THE  PROBLEM   OF  ORIGINALITY. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  every  specialist  is  anxious 
to  preserve  the  originality  of  the  national  hero  of  that 
civilization  with  w4iich  his  sympathies  are  most  closely 
associated.  Wilamowitz  Mollendorf,  a  Greek  scholar,  (in 
his  Euripides'  Heracles)  protests  most  indignantly  against 
the  idea  that  Heracles  should  be  considered  a  Semitic  im- 
portation. To  him  Heracles  is  a  Greek  hero,  and  he  would 
not  allow  the  Greek  story  to  be  a  mere  adaptation  of  an 
Oriental  myth  to  the  Greek  genius.  And  yet,  the  similar- 
ity of  the  Greek  Heracles  to  the  Oriental  Izdubar  is  ob- 
vious at  first  sight. 

The  difficulty  of  such  controversies  lies  in  the  fact  that 
our  viewpoint  is  a  matter  of  purely  subjective  attitude. 
The  similaritv  of  the  national  and  the  solar  heroes  in  all 


THE    PROr.LIiM    OF    THE    SAMSON    STORY.  J 

European  and  Asiatic  countries  is  undeniable  and  yet  we 
can  not  know  whether  every  nation  had  its  own  national 
myth  which  has  been  influenced  by  foreign  importations, 
or  whether  all  of  them  are  derived  from  one  common  pre- 
historic source.  Certain  it  is  that  a  mutual  exchange  of 
thought  is  not  uncommon,  and  further  that  every  nation 
worked  out  the  figure  of  its  own  national  hero.  However, 
the  fusion  of  ideas  in  the  formation  of  heroic  types  is 
too  perplexing  to  allow  the  making  of  definite  statements. 
In  all  these  stories,  the  sun-god,  the  god  of  thunder-storms, 
and  the  national  hero  are  fused  together  into  one  personal- 
ity which  is  enriched  with  the  features  of  any  divinity  that 
appeals  to  the  popular  imagination,  while  the  humanizing 
of  the  myth  implies  as  a  matter  of  course  the  incorporation 
of  actual  reminiscences  from  real  life,  i.  e.,  historical  ele- 
ments. Accordingly  all  myths  contain  details  of  a  personal 
and  local  character  and  so  a  discussion  concerning  the  his- 
toricity and  originality  of  the  Heracles,  Samson,  Izdubar, 
Siegfried,  and  other  legends  becomes  irrelevant.  Every 
one  of  them  has  become  a  national  hero,  representing  the 
type  of  his  home.  Thus  the  personal  equation  of  the  sev- 
eral scholars  naturally  plays  an  important  part,  and  two 
men  holding  exactly  the  same  views,  might  set  forth  ap- 
parently contradictory  theories.  So  Roskofif  maintains 
the  historicity  of  Samson  and  the  religious  character  of 
the  story,  and  yet  he  concedes  its  legendary  character  and 
kinship  to  solar  legends,  not  otherwise  than  Steinthal.  On 
the  other  hand,  not  even  Steinthal  would  be  prepared  to 
deny  that  some  boisterous  Danite  by  the  name  of  Samson 
mav  have  existed,  and  that  some  of  his  brawls  with  the 
Philistines  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  actual  occurrences. 

THE   ROMANCE  OF  ALEXANDER. 

The  poet's  art  consists  in  rendering  vague  notions  defi- 
nite, and  a  good  narrator  will  vividly  depict  all  the  details 


8  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

of  his  story.  Accordingly  it  is  but  natural  that  a  myth  by 
being  told  and  retold  will  be  more  and  more  localized,  and 
its  hero  (originally  a  god  representing  the  sun,  the  moon, 
or  the  sky,  the  thunder,  or  some  other  agent  of  natural 
phenomena)  will  gradually  become  a  man,  extraordinary 
through  his  great  virtues  and  exploits,  but  perfectly  hu- 
man, in  his  sentiments. 

This  is  not  all;  the  myth  changes  to  saga  or  legend 
by  crystallizing  around  some  historical  figure  or  by  being 
localized  in  a  definite  place.  The  god  is  conceived  as  an 
ideal  man,  and  if  an  extraordinary  man  appears  who  some- 
how reminds  his  admirers  of  the  god  himself,  the  stories 
of  the  god  are  told  of  him  and  his  real  life  is  soon  hidden 
under  the  exuberance  of  the  mythical  tales.  On  a  farm 
in  the  prairie  woods  of  Illinois  there  stood  a  dead  oak 
completely  covered  and  almost  hidden  by  the  rich  foliage 
of  vines,  and  it  impressed  me  as  an  allegory  of  the  luxur- 
ious growth  of  a  myth  surrounding  some  historical  nu- 
cleus. He  who  considers  the  trunk  and  investigates  the 
bark,  says  it  is  an  oak,  while  he  who  bases  his  inquiry 
upon  the  nature  of  the  leaves  declares  that  it  is  a  vine. 
Who  is  right  ? 

TJie  Romance  of  Alexander  is  a  mediaeval  epic  which 
echoes  the  impression  made  by  the  great  conqueror  on  the 
people  of  Asia.  It  incorporates  many  adventures  of  the 
Babylonian  Izdubar  epic  and  so  the  origin  and  history  of 
this  strange  literary  document  is  very  instructive  and 
shows  how  easily  history  and  myth  are  fused  into  ro- 
mance.^ 

The  romance  of  Alexander  tells  us  about  his  adven- 
tures in  many  strange  countries,  and  of  his  struggles 
with  wondrous  monsters  of  all  descriptions,  reminding  us 
of  the   incidents  of  the  legends  of   Heracles,   Odysseus, 

^  Noldeke,  Beitrdgc  cur  Gcschichtc  dcs  Alexander-Romans,  Vienna,  1890; 
and  Meissner,  Alexander  luid  Gilgaincsch,  Leipsic,  1894. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY. 


9 


yEneas  and  other  solar  heroes,  and  the  interest  in  these 
fantastical  narrations  continues  down  into  the  middle  ages. 
We  reproduce  here  some  of  the  illustrations  of  a  manu- 
script written  and  illumined  in  the  thirteenth  century,  in 


VINE-COVERED    TREE. 


which  the  history  of  Alexander  of  Macedon  has  been  ab- 
solutely obliterated  by  mythological  reminiscences  incorpo- 
rated into  this  romance. 

Might  not  one  literary  critic  rightly  say  that  the  Ro- 


lO 


THE    STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


mance  of  Alexander  is  the  Izdubar  myth  told  of  Alexander, 
and  that  it  is  originally  a  solar  myth,  while  another  would 
deny  this  proposition  and  claim  that  the  hero  of  the  ro- 
mance is  historical  though  the  account  is  overlaid  with 
mythical  ornamentation?  What  would  be  the  difference 
between  these  contradictory  theories  beyond  mere  words? 


ALEXANDER    FIGHTING    WITH    BEAST-HEADED    MEN, 


4928 


ALEXANDER  AND   THE   MONSTERS. 


4929 


Hugo  Winckler  (GcschicJifc  Israels,  Vol.  II,  p.  17) 
characterizes  the  Alexander  legend  as  follows: 

"The  historians  whom  Alexander  the  Great  took  with 
him,  instead  of  giving  an  historical  description  of  his  deeds, 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY. 


II 


FANTASTIC   REPRESENTATIONS   OF  THE   ADVENTURES   OF  ALEXANDER 

THE  GREAT.  4930 


12  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

thought  their  task  lay  rather  in  proving  that  he  was  the 
expected  redeemer  of  the  old  civilization  of  whom  Oriental 
legend  had  sketched  an  enduring  picture,  and  who  was  to 
come  from  the  Orient  just  as  the  Germans  expected  the 
resurrected  Barbarossa  to  restore  the  glory  of  their  ancient 
empire.  Now  at  last  we  are  certain  that  all  the  Alexander 
traditions  associated  with  the  names  of  Callisthenes,  Clei- 
tarch,  Onesicritus,  etc.,  even  with  that  which  appears  in 
Curtius,  are  purely  legendary.  Their  development  into 
'Romances'  of  Alexander  which  go  under  the  name  of  a 
Callisthenes  (Pseudo-Callisthenes),  and  the  lately  acces- 
sible knowledge  of  at  least  some  Babylonian  myths,  has 
shown  how  those  tales  are  a  repetition  of  ancient  Oriental 
legends  of  which  Alexander  was  later  to  become  the  hero 
solely  in  order  that  he  might  be  represented  as  the  ex- 
pected king  who  was  to  usher  in  a  better  age. 

"In  the  same  way  it  has  come  to  light  that  the  stories 
of  a  certain  Ctesias  about  Semiramis  have  made  use  of  the 
same  material,  and  that  in  general  all  legends  of  the  clas- 
sical period  up  to  Roman  times,  which  entered  about  the 
most  remote  antiquity  may  be  traced  to  the  same  source." 

THE   LOCALIZATION    OF    MYTHS. 

The  Romance  of  Alexander  is  not  an  exception  but  a 
typical  instance  of  the  historization  and  localization  of  a 
myth.  The  Nibelung  Saga  is  thoroughly  localized  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  and  is  connected  with 
actual  figures  of  history  such  as  Attila.  The  Heracles 
myth  definitely  points  out  the  places  where  Heracles  was 
born  and  where  he  accomplished  his  mighty  deeds.  The 
royal  families  that  traced  their  descent  from  him  were  still 
flourishing  in  historical  times,  and  the  "Pillars  of  Hera- 
cles" are  standing  to  this  day.  The  same  is  true  of  all  myths 
and  legends,  of  the  Osiris  myth  in  Egypt  not  less  than  the 
anecdotes  told  of  Luther,  Frederick  the  Great,  Napoleon 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY.  1 3 

and  other  modern  heroes.  Even  the  fables  related  of  the 
devil,  are  localized  without  any  equivocation;  the  stones 
he  threw,  the  bridges  he  built,  the  walls  he  piled  up  are 
still  pointed  out,  and  if  the  testimony  of  these  actual  traces 
of  his  activity  as  corpora  delicti  are  accepted  as  evidence, 
we  can  not  deny  the  historicity  of  the  stories. 

The  historicity  of  Samson  is  accepted  on  no  other 
ground.  Dr.  Gustav  Baur,  for  instance,  sums  up  his  argu- 
ment in  Riehm's  H andzvortcrbitch  dcs  BibliscJicn  Alter- 
tiiins, — a  standard  work  of  German  theology,  as  follows: 

"Against  the  thorough  mythization  of  this  Biblical 
tale  speak  the  definite  localities  to  which  Samson's  birth, 
deeds  and  destinies  are  attached,  and  which  in  any  attempt 
at  a  mythological  solution  will  remain  an  insoluble  residue, 
pointing  decidedly  to  a  definite  historical  tradition." 

The  Encyclopaedia  Biblica,  the  most  scholarly  and  crit- 
ical theological  work  of  reference  in  the  English  language, 
gives  a  similar  verdict : 

"Though  the  name  means  'solar,'  neither  name  nor 
story  lends  any  solid  support  to  Steinthal's  idea  that  the 
hero  is  nothing  but  a  solar  myth.  (Wellhausen,  whilst 
he  rejects  Steinthal's  myth  theory,  also  denies  Samson's 
historical  character.)  He  is  a  member  of  an  undoubtedly 
historical  family  of  those  Danites  who  had  their  standing 
camp  near  Zorah,  not  far  from  the  Philistine  border,  be- 
fore they  moved  north  and  seized  Laish.  The  family  of 
]\Ianoah  has  a  hereditary  sepulchre  at  Zorah,  where  Sam- 
son was  said  to  lie,  and  their  name  continued  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  Zorah  even  after  the  exile,  when  it  appears 
that  the  Manahethites  of  Zorah  were  reckoned  as  Caleb- 
ites.  The  name  had  remained  though  the  race  changed 
(i.  Chron.  ii.  52-54- )•" 

We  grant  the  argument,  but  we  grant  it  as  well  for 
Homer's  epics.  The  geographical  background  of  the  Od- 
yssey is  historical  and  among  the  adventurers  of  the  Ho- 


14  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

meric  age  there  may  have  been  a  man  who  bore  the  name 
Odysseus.  At  any  rate,  there  were  plenty  of  adventurers 
hke  him,  yet  we  do  not  see  how  the  concession  refutes  the 
truth  that  the  Odyssey  reflects  the  myth  of  the  sun's  migra- 
tion. It  is  a  myth  changed  into  saga,  or  if  you  prefer,  a 
saga  based  upon  a  mythical  motive. 

With  the  same  argument  we  can  easily  prove  the  his- 
toricity of  Miinchhausen's  adventures,  for  the  family  of 
Miinchhausen  still  prospers  in  Germany,  and  the  stories 
contain  many  allusions  to  definite  historical  and  geograph- 
ical conditions. 

If  we  speak  of  history  we  ought  to  mean  history  pure 
and  simple,  unadulterated  by  mythical  elements;  and  if 
we  ask  whether  or  not  the  Samson  story  is  historical,  ta- 
king the  word  seriously  I  do  not  see  how  any  one — scholar 

or  not  scholar — can  answer  in  the  affirmative. 

*       *       * 

Before  we  begin  to  deal  with  the  problem  of  the  Sam- 
son story  itself,  we  deem  it  advisable  to  review  in  brief 
outlines  the  literary  traditions  and  religious  tenets  of  the 
age. 

HEBREW  LITERATURE  AND  ITS  REDACTORS. 

A  few  words  will  suffice  for  a  general  orientation  con- 
cerning the  successive  strata  of  Jewish  literature.  We 
must  assume  that  the  historical  books  of  the  Hebrews  have 
been  derived  from  two  original  sources  (or  classes  of 
sources)  of  which  the  one  belonged  to  the  kingdom  of 
Judah,  or  southern  Palestine;  the  other  to  Ephraim,  or 
central  Palestine. 

A  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  Hebrew  literature  be- 
gins in  the  year  of  the  great  reform,  621  B.  C,  when  the 
law  book  was  discovered  in  the  temple.^  The  theory  that 
this  law  book  is  Deuteronomy  has  been  commonly  accepted, 

*  2  Kings  xxi-xxii. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY.  1 5 

at  least  by  all  the  leading  higher  critics  of  Old  Testament 
literature.  At  the  same  time  it  is  held  that  this  law  book 
(or  Deuteronomy)  can  not  be  much  older  than  the  year 
of  its  discovery  in  the  temple.  King  Josiah  and  his  re- 
formers did  away  with  the  paganism  of  the  temple  of 
Jerusalem,  and  we  know  that  the  Deuteronomic  institutions 
are  never  alluded  to  in  the  previous  history  of  Israel,  but 
that  on  the  contrary  in  the  historical  books  worship  in  the 
high  places,  and  even  the  use  of  idols,  ephods,  teraphim, 
etc.,  are  frequently  referred  to  as  part  of  the  established 
religion.  So  we  conclude  that  it  was  a  plot  of  the  reform- 
ers to  introduce  their  monotheism  into  the  temple  service 
at  Jerusalem,  to  do  away  with  the  worship  in  high  places 
which  had  been  the  ancient  form  of  the  religion  of  Israel. 
For  the  sake  of  giving  authority  to  their  innovation  they 
dated  the  book  backward  and  claimed  for  it  the  authority 
of  Moses.  This  reform  movement  had  been  prepared  by 
the  prophets  in  their  indignation  against  the  improper 
features  of  the  traditional  religious  practices.  It  took  a 
firm  hold  on  the  Jerusalem  priesthood  who  from  that  day 
remained  faithfully  addicted  to  monotheism,  and  the  au'- 
thors  of  this  priestly  school  are  commonly  called  Deuteron* 
omists. 

The  kingdom  of  Judea  did  not  exist  long  after  the  great 
reform.  King  Josiah  fell  in  the  battle  of  Megiddo  (609 
B.  C.)  against  the  Egyptian  king  Necho.  Soon  afterwards 
in  the  battle  of  Gargamish  (605  B.  C.)  Judea  lost  its  in- 
dependence, and  all  families  of  importance,  the  nobility, 
and  all  the  educated  men  down  to  the  artisans  and  espe- 
cially the  smiths,  were  led  into  captivity  by  the  victorious 
Babylonians. 

The  Babylonian  captivity,  however,  was  not  the  end 
of  the  Jewish  monotheism.  On  the  contrary  it  was  its  true 
beginning  and  proved  a  refining  furnace  for  the  Jewish  re- 
ligion. When  the  Babylonian  empire  fell  into  the  hands  of 


l6  THE    STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

the  Persians,  Cyrus  allowed  the  Jews  to  return  to  Pales- 
tine, and  helped  them  to  rebuild  their  temple  at  Jerusalem. 

The  great  representative  leader  of  the  exiled  Jews  at 
Babylon  was  Ezekiel,  who  together  with  his  followers, 
men  like  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  cultivated  the  ancient  na- 
tional traditions,  but  subjected  them  to  a  rigorous  criti- 
cism in  a  severely  monotheistic,  yea  a  zealotical  and  nar- 
row, puritan  spirit. 

The  period  after  the  restoration  of  the  temple  no  longer 
shows  any  traces  of  originality,  for  the  literary  work  of 
the  post-exilic  ages  consists  mainly  in  editing  and  redact- 
ing the  old  books,  which  are  now  adapted  to  this  latest 
phase  of  a  narrow  national,  but  rigorously  monotheistic, 
God-conception. 

Our  Old  Testament  scholars  accordingly  distinguish 
first  in  the  strata  of  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  two  sources  of  Judaic  and  Ephraimitic  authors 
(the  former  abbreviated  j,  the  latter  e)  which  in  all  prob- 
ability date  back  to  the  ninth  century,  and  may  occasionally 
contain  even  older  documents.  They  were  collected  and 
compiled  by  authors  of  the  Deuteronomistic  schools  (com- 
monly abbreviated  d)  and  the  work  of  the  Deuteronomist 
was  finally  revised  by  a  post-Exilic  redactor.^ 

The  story  of  Samson  appears  to  be  exclusively  Judaic. 
xA.t  any  rate  it  contains  no  Ephraimitic  elements,  and  there 
are  only  a  few  added  glosses  of  the  Deuteronomist  and  the 
post-Exilic  redactor. 

THE  SUN  IN  HEBREW  LITERATURE. 

A  Hebrew  psalmist,  praising  the  glory  of  Yahveh,  says 
(xix.  4-6) : 

*  Later  additions  to  j  and  E  are  designated  by  j^  and  E",  or  if  they  are 
redactors'  glosses  RJ  and  R^.  A  fusion  of  Judaic  and  Ephraimitic  writers  is 
indicated  by  the  combination  of  both  letters  je,  a  redaction  of  the  two  sources 
is  marked  RJe.  The  writings  of  the  Priestly  Code  are  sometimes  also  marked 
P.  C.  All  these  abbreviations  are  current  in  modern  theological  literature  and 
universally  understood. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY.  1/ 

''He  has  prepared  a  tent  for  the  sun, 
And  thence  he  comes  forth,  as,  from  the  bridal  cham- 
ber, the  bridegroom, 
And  rejoices,  hke  a  hero,  to  run  his  course. 
From  one  end  of  heaven  he  sets  out. 
And  to  the  other  holds  his  winding  way, 
And  nothing  from  his  fervor  can  be  hid."^ 

This  passage  is  supposed  to  be  of  comparatively  late 
date  and  yet  it  is  a  torso, — a  mere  fragment  which,  how- 
ever, proves  that  the  myth  of  the  sun-god  as  a  lover,  a 
hero  and  a  man  of  fiery  temperament,  had  not  yet  been 
forgotten  among  the  authors  of  the  Hebrew  canon.  The 
redactor  has  preserved  this  torso  on  account  of  Yahveh's 
patronage  of  the  sun-hero,  but  he  has  omitted  the  rest  on 
account  of  its  pagan  ingredients. 

The  passage  begins  abruptly  and  closes  abruptly.  If 
the  preceding  lines  (i-4a)  belong  to  it,  there  must  be  a 
gap  in  the  middle  of  verse  4.  Wellhausen  says  that  "a 
clause  seems  to  have  fallen  out  which  mentioned  the  anti- 
podean world,  the  waters  of  the  ocean  where  the  sun 
spends  the  night."  The  verses  7-14  treat  another  subject, 
the  praise  of  the  law,  not  even  by  way  of  contrast,  and  so 
Wellhausen  believes  that  the  psalm  has  been  formed  out 
of  two  fragments  which  had  no  original  connection  with 
each  other. 

It  would  have  been  strange  indeed  if  the  people  of  Israel 
in  the  period  of  paganism  had  not  possessed  a  solar  myth ; 
and  if  they  had  one,  it  is  probable  that  in  the  age  of  mono- 
theism it  would  have  received  a  similar  treatment  to  that 
of  the  ancient  Semitic  cosmology  which  has  been  rational- 
ized into  the  simple  creation  story  of  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis. 

The  story  of  Samson  in  the  Old  Testament  so  reminded 

'-Translated  by  Wellhausen  in  the  Polychrome  Edition.  Dodd,  Mead  & 
Co.,  New  York. 


l8  THE   STORY    OF   SAMSON. 

the  church  father  Eusebius  of  the  Greek  myth  of  Heracles 
that,  assummg  as  a  matter  of  course  the  originahty  of  the 
revealed  Scriptures,  he  explained  Heracles  as  a  pagan 
imitation  of  Samson.  So  much  was  Eusebius  still  a  pagan 
himself  that  he  thought  nothing  of  the  streak  of  paganism 
that  pervaded  the  Samson  story.  Yet  he  may  be  right 
after  all  in  his  general  theory  that  the  Greeks  are  indebted 
to  the  Semites  (not  exactly  the  Jews)  for  some  essential 
features  of  the  Heracles  myth;  for  even  Preller,  long  be- 
for  the  discovery  of  the  twelve  Izdubar  tablets,  declared 
that  "some  of  the  twelve  labors  of  Heracles  are  quite  ob- 
viously of  Oriental  origin." 

THE  DATE  OF  THE   SAMSON   EPIC. 

The  Samson  account  is  closely  interwoven  with  refer- 
ences to  the  Philistines,  and  this  gives  us  a  clue  to  the  date 
at  which  the  story  must  have  received  the  final  form  in 
which  it  lay  before  the  post-Exilic  priestly  redactor.  This 
was  about  iioo  B.  C.,  and  we  must  assume  that  it  took 
place  shortly  after  the  arrival  of  these  foreign  intruders. 
The  reason  that  we  can  not  date  the  completion  of  the 
Samson  epic  much  later,  is  based  on  the  fact  that  the 
preserved  passages  contain  no  allusion  whatever  to  any 
one  of  the  kings ;  and  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  reigns 
of  Saul,  David,  and  Solomon  constitute  the  most  glorious 
epoch  in  the  history  of  Israel,  w^hich  the  author  certainly 
would  not  have  left  unmentioned  if  it  had  been  within  his 
knowledge.  Though  the  story  of  Samson  as  we  have  it  is 
the  copy  of  an  ancient  document  it  must  be  understood 
that  it  is  a  fragment  only,  for,  as  will  be  shown  further 
on,  the  most  salient  heretical  features  have  been  removed 
in  the  final  redaction. 

That  the  story  speaks  of  Israel's  oppression  by  the 
Philistines  and  represents  Samson  as  a  saviour  of  his  tribe, 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SAMSON    STORY.  IQ 

is  natural,  for  every  myth  is  adapted  to  local  conditions 

when  changing  into  a  saga. 

In  its  primitive  form  the  Samson  legend  is  still  more 

ancient  as  indicated  by  the  story  of  his  marriage.    Against 

the  custom  prevalent  in  the  time  of  Hammurabi,  the  bride 

remains  in  the  house  of  her  own  parents  according  to  the 

rule  of  the  ancient,   and  indeed  prehistoric,  matriarchal 

institution  which  was  absolutely  changed  as  early  as  in  the 

time  of  the  patriarchs.    This  item  proves  that  the  nucleus 

of  the  story  is  older  than  the  people  of  Israel. 

*       H=       * 

The  Samson  story  has  remained  a  favorite  with  Bible 
readers,  and  so  its  several  incidents  have  been  illustrated 
by  the  greatest  masters  of  Christian  painting,  all  of  them 
reflecting  the  spirit  in  which  the  various  episodes  of  the 
tale  were  commonly  interpreted. 


THE  HISTORICAL  BACKGROUND. 


THE   PAGANISM   OF  DAN. 


WE  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  in  the  days  pre- 
ceding the  prophetic  movement,  the  people  of  Is- 
rael were  pagans  as  much  as  the  Phoenicians  and  their 
other  neighbors.  As  to  the  tribe  of  Dan,  we  have  the  un- 
equivocal scriptural  evidence  in  chapters  xvii-xviii  of  the 
Book  of  Judges  which  describes  the  migration  of  the  tribe 
from  the  extreme  southwest  of  Palestine  to  the  extreme 
north,  where  they  founded  the  city  of  Dan,  the  most  north- 
ern place  of  Israel.  We  are  told  that  when  they  passed 
through  Ephraim  they  discovered  a  Levite  who  was  a 
countryman  of  theirs,  a  native  of  southern  Palestine,  serv- 
ing as  a  priest  to  Micah,  the  Ephraimite,  and  they  forced 
the  Levite  to  steal  the  Yahveh  idol  of  his  master  and  to 
accompany  the  tribe  further  north  to  the  country  of  Beth- 
rehob.  The  indignation  of  the  redactor  vents  itself  in  a 
gloss  on  the  anarchy  of  those  days,  which  has  been  incor- 
porated into  the  text  (xvii.  6),  but  the  original  narrator 
tells  the  story  without  finding  fault  with  the  paganism 
involved  in  it.  Professor  Moore's  opinion  is  summed  up 
in  this  paragraph:^ 

"This  story  is,  without  question,  very  old.     It  relates 

'  Polychrome  Edition  Book  of  Judges,  p.  88. 


THE   HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND.  21 

the  origin  of  the  image  in  the  famous  sanctuary  of  Dan 
without  any  trace  of  rehgious  antipathy,  and  speaks  of  the 
Epliod  with  as  Httle  prejudice  as  the  original  author  of 
Judges,  Chapter  viii,  27  ff.,  speaks  of  that  set  up  by 
Gideon  at  Ophrah.  The  writer  evidently  enjoys  telling  of 
the  stroke  by  which  the  Danites  got  possession  of  it,  and 
of  the  owner's  discomfiture.  The  picture  which  he  gives 
of  the  social  and  religious  state  of  the  times  is  of  the 
highest  value." 

Having  destroyed  the  city  of  Laish  and  built  up  a  city 
of  their  own,  called  Dan,  they  put  up  in  it  jMicah's  idol, 
made  of  eleven  hundred  shekels  of  silver  and  "it  continued 
there  as  long  as  the  house  of  God  at  Shiloh."  The  pagan- 
ism of  Dan,  in  fact  also  of  Ephraim,  is  here  presupposed, 
and  we  must  assume  that  conditions  were  not  different  in 
southern  Palestine  among  the  Danites  in  the  time  when  the 
tale  of  Samson  was  composed. 

In  the  Book  of  Joshua  (xix.  47)  Laish  is  called  Leshem 
and  it  is  perhaps  the  same  city  which  is  enumerated  in  the 
list  of  Thotmes  III  as  "Liusa." 

We  abstain  here  from  entering  into  a  discussion  of  the 
story  of  Dan's  conquest  of  Laish  and  will  only  say  that 
Laish^  means  "lion" ;  and  if  Dan  is  an  appellative  of  Sha- 
mash,  the  destruction  of  Laish  may  contain  a  reminiscence 
of  the  sun-god's  victory  over  the  lion." 

It  is  commonly  conceded  that  the  purpose  of  the  tale 
in  its  present  form  is  to  explain  how  it  happens  that  there 
is  a  city  of  Dan  in  the  farthest  north  and  a  tribe  of  Dan  in 

if';} 

'Hugo  Winckler  {Gesch.  Israels,  II,  pp.  64-65)  translates  the  name  Laish 
by  "does  not  exist,"  and  Leshem  by  "no  name."  He  suggests  at  the  same 
time  an  identification  of  Laish  with  Luz  (mentioned  in  Gen.  xxviii.  19;  xxxv. 
6;  xlviii.  3;  Joch.  xvi.  2 ;  xviii.  13;  and  Judges  i.  22-26),  an  old  name  of  Bethel, 
for  which  he  finds  the  analogous  term  in  the  Arabic  land,  meaning  "asylum," 
and  if  he  is  right,  it  would  explain  why  both  cities,  Dan  and  Bethel,  contain- 
ing the  two  main  sanctuaries  of  ancient  Israel,  are  called  Luz,  for  Luz  would 
not  be  a  name  but  an  appellative  to  denote  a  city  the  temple  of  which  was 
an  acknowledged  place  of  refuge. 


22 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


the  extreme  south  of  Palestine.  For  all  we  know  the  same- 
ness of  these  names  may  be  an  accidental  coincidence. 

A  reminiscence  of  the  tribe  of  Dan  is  still  preserved  in 
the  modern  Tel  el  Kadi,  for  Kadi  which  means  "judge" 
is  nothing  but  the  Arabic  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Dan. 

Tel  el  Kadi  is  a  mere  hill  of  ruins  which  no  longer  be- 
trays that  it  is  the  site  of  an  ancient  city.    Close  by  is  one 


THE  HOLY  OAK  OF  TEL  EL  KADI    :  THE  ANCIENT  SITE  OF  DAN. 


4933 


of  the  sources  of  the  Jordan,  and  there  in  the  valley  stands 
a  gnarled  old  oak  which  is  still  considered  sacred  by  the 
natives. 

Another  source  of  the  Jordan,  only  forty  minutes  dis- 
tant from  Tel  el  Kadi,  comes  from  Banijas  where  it  bub- 
bles up  in  front  of  a  picturesque  grotto  which  during  the 
Hellenistic  age  was  dedicated  to  Pan. 


THE   HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND. 


23 


The  religion  of  the  Danites  differed  considerably  from 
the  Baal  cult  of  Canaan  and  the  Dagon  worship  of  the 
Philistines,  but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  attribute  to  them 


THE  GROTTO  OF  PAN  AT  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  JORDAN. 


the  pure  monotheism  of  later  days,  for  we  have  seen  that 
in  those  ancient  days  they  had  no  objection  to  the  worshij) 
of  a  silver  idol  of  Yahveh. 


24  THE   STORY   OF    SAMSON. 

SHAMASH   AND   SAMSON. 

The  name  SJiainsJwu^  whose  Babylonian  form  is  Sha- 
inashanii  is  derived  from  j»-/m;7/a^/z/ "smi,"  and  means  "sun- 
Hke"  or  "solar,"  just  as  the  Hebrew  form  Dagon^  the 
name  of  the  Philistine  deity  is  regarded  by  the  rabbis  as 
a  derivative  from  dag,"^  "fish,"  meaning  anything  that  be- 
longs to  the  nature  of  a  fish. 

The  Hebrew  form  for  Samson,  i.  e.  SJiinishon,^  is  later, 
for  the  Greek  version  of  the  Septuagint,  which  is  older 
than  the  vowels  of  our  Hebrew  text,  reads  Sampson.^ 

We  can  not  doubt  that  Shaniash,  the  sun,  or  Shanishon, 
the  sun-god,  was  in  pagan  times  the  patron  god  of  the  tribe 
of  Dan, 

The  name  Dan  means  "judge,"  and  Shamash,  the  sun- 
god,  has  always  been  revered  as  the  patron  of  justice,  the 
title  "Judge"  being  one  of  his  most  common  epithets. 
Hence  the  terms  "Dan"  and  "Samson"  may  be  regarded 
as  equivalent.  The  worship  of  Shamash  in  Dan  is  proved 
by  the  name  of  the  pre-Israelitic  town  Beth  Shemesh, 
which  is  very  ancient  and  is  mentioned  even  as  early  as 
in  the  Tel  Amarna  tablets. 

The  Babylonian  Samson  is  called  Izdubar,'^  and  the 
word  An-is-du-har  is  explained  in  Roscher's  lexicon  (H 
776)  as  "Divine  Judge  of  Earthly  Things,"  which  proves 
a  decided  kinship  to  the  hero  of  Dan. 

DAGON   OF  THE   PHILISTINES. 

Dagon  is  repeatedly  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament 
as  the  chief  god  of  the  Philistines,  who  in  the  days  of 

'  The  name  Izdubar  is  in  its  cuneiform  writing  not  phonetic,  and  so  the 
pronunciation  is  still  doubtful.  It  is  explained  in  a  fragment,  copied  by  G. 
Pinches,  as  Gilgamcsh. 


THE   HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND.  25 

Samson  were  masters  of  the  territory  where  tented  the 
tribes  of  Judah  and  Dan,  The  Phihstines  were  not  Semites 
but  Aryans,  and  appear  to  have  been  kin  to  the  Greeks. 
They  had  come  1)y  tlie  way  of  the  sea  and  were  different 
from  the  Semites  in  hal)its  as  well  as  language,  hence  the 
deep  gulf  that  lay  between  the  two  races.  The  Semites 
were  nomads  and  traders,  and  their  inherited  mode  of 
making  a  living  was  by  barter;  the  Philistines,  however, 
were  tillers  of  the  ground.  While  the  Phoenicians  de- 
veloped into  a  seafaring  nation,  the  Israelites  began  to 
turn  to  agriculture  only  in  Samuel's  time,  and  so  we  may 
assume  that  in  the  days  of  the  Judges  the  Philistines 
looked  dow^n  upon  them  as  an  inferior  race.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Hebrews  had  a  deep-seated  contempt  for  the 
Philistines  because  they  did  not  practice  circumcision  and 
were  therefore  thought  to  be  unclean ;  but  we  can  easily 
understand  that  the  better  educated  men  among  the  Is- 
raelites profited  by  intercourse  with  their  agricultural 
neighbors,  and  so  we  find  that  David's  connection  with 
them  became  of  great  importance  in  his  career.  In  fact 
his  superiority  among  the  Israelites  may  be  due  to  a  great 
extent  to  his  acquaintance  with  Philistine  civilization.  Not 
only  did  he  live  among  the  Philistines  as  an  exile  from 
home,  but  even  when  he  had  become  king,  he  a]:)pears  to 
have  relied  at  least  for  some  time  upon  his  Philistine  body 
guard,  the  Cherethites  and  Pelethites.  The  former  name 
for  plausible  reasons  has  been  connected  with  the  island 
of  Crete,  and  the  Septuagint,  indeed,  translates  Chere- 
thites as  Cretans. 

While  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Dagon  is  the  chief 
god  of  the  Philistines,  we  must  not  assume  that  he  is  their 
national  god ;  for  we  know  that  the  worship  of  Dagon  is 
older  than  the  Philistine  immigration.  Several  Canaan- 
itish  names  such  as  Beth  Dagon  prove  its  prevalence 
among  the  Canaanites  also  in  districts  which  were  never 


26  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

subject  to  Philistine  rule.  The  Philistines,  like  all  immi- 
grants in  ancient  times,  used  to  worship  the  gods  of  their 
new  home  in  order  to  gain  their  favor  and  propitiate  their 
possible  wrath  against  intruders. 

Dagon  was  worshiped  also  among  the  Eastern  Semites 
in  Babylon,  as  we  know  by  several  names  of  Babylonian 
kings  such  as"  Ishmi-Dagan  and  Idin-Dagan,  while  the 
name  Dagan-takala  mentioned  in  the  Tel  Amarna  letters 
proves  its  occurrence  among  the  western  Semites  as  well 
long  before  the  Philistine  invasion. 

The  name  Dagon  might  as  well  be  a  derivative  from 
dag,  "fish,"  as  Samson  is  from  sliaiuasJi,  "sun."  While 
Samson  means  sunlike,  or  sunny,  Dagon  may  mean  fishy 
or  fishlike,  and  since  ancient  times  the  god  Dagon  has 
for  this  reason  been  regarded  by  the  rabbis  as  a  fish  deity. 
But  we  shall  see  that  this  interpretation  is  untenable. 

YAHVEH  STRONGER  THAN  DAGON. 

By  some  unfortunate  accident  (see  i  Sam.  iv)  the  ark  of 
Yahveh,  the  god  of  Israel,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Philistines,  but  through  a  strange  occurrence  which  in 
those  days  was  regarded  as  a  miracle  and  a  manifestation 
of  the  power  of  Yahveh,  the  Philistines  deemed  it  wise  to 
restore  the  ark  to  the  Israelites.  The  event  is  recorded  in 
I  Sam.  V.  I  fif. 

"And  the  Philistines  took  the  ark  of  God,  and  brought 
it  from  Ebenezer  unto  Ashdod. 

"When  the  Philistines  took  the  ark  of  God,  they 
brought  it  into  the  house  of  Dagon,  and  set  it  by  Dagon. 

"And  when  they  of  Ashdod  arose  early  on  the  morrow, 
behold,  Dagon  was  fallen  upon  his  face  to  the  earth  before 
the  ark  of  the  Lord.  And  they  took  Dagon,  and  set  him  in 
his  place  again. 

"And  when  they  arose  early  on  the  morrow  morning, 
behold,  Dagon  was  fallen  upon  his  face  to  the  ground 


THE    HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND.  27 

before  the  ark  of  the  Lord;  and  the  head  of  Dagon  and 
both  the  pahiis  of  his  hands  were  cut  off  upon  the  threshold ; 
only  the  stump  of  Dagon  was  left  to  him. 

''Therefore  neither  the  priests  of  Dagon,  nor  any  that 
come  into  Dagon's  house,  tread  on  the  threshold  of  Dagon 
in  Ashdod  unto  this  day. 

"But  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  heavy  upon  them  of 
Ashdod,  and  he  destroyed  them,  and  smote  them  with 
emerods,  even  Ashdod  and  the  coasts  thereof." 

The  Philistines  sent  the  ark  to  Gath,  and  thence  to 
Ekron,  and  finally  decided  to  return  it  to  the  Israelites, 
as  we  read  in  i  Sam.  vi,  1-15: 

"And  the  ark  of  the  Lord  was  in  the  country  of  the 
Philistines  seven  months. 

"And  the  Philistines  called  for  the  priests  and  the  di- 
viners, saying,  What  shall  we  do  to  the  ark  of  the  Lord? 
tell  us  wherewith  we  shall  send  it  to  his  place. 

"And  they  said,  If  ye  send  away  the  ark  of  the  God  of 
Israel,  send  it  not  empty;  but  in  any  wise  return  him  a 
trespass  offering:  then  ye  shall  be  healed,  and  it  shall  be 
known  to  you  why  his  hand  is  not  removed  from  you. 

"Then  said  they,  What  shall  be  the  trespass  offering 
which  we  shall  return  to  him?  They  answered.  Five 
golden  emerods,  and  five  golden  mice,  according  to  the 
number  of  the  lords  of  the  Philistines :  for  one  plague  was 
on  you  all,  and  on  your  lords. 

"Wherefore  ye  shall  make  images  of  your  emerods, 
and  images  of  your  mice  that  mar  the  land;  and  ye  shall 
give  glory  unto  the  God  of  Israel:  peradventure  he  will 
lighten  his  hand  from  off  you,  and  from  off  your  gods,  and 
from  off  your  land. 

"Wherefore  then  do  ye  harden  your  hearts,  as  the 
Egyptians  and  Pharaoh  hardened  their  hearts?  when  he 
had  wrought  wonderfully  among  them,  did  they  not  let 
the  people  go,  and  they  departed  ? 


28  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

"Now  therefore  make  a  new  cart,  and  take  two  milch 
kine,  on  which  there  hath  come  no  yoke,  and  tie  the  kine 
to  the  cart,  and  bring  their  calves  home  from  them : 

"And  take  the  ark  of  the  Lord  and  lay  it  upon  the  cart ; 
and  put  the  jewels  of  gold,  which  ye  return  him  for  tres- 
pass offering,  in  a  coffer  by  the  side  thereof;  and  send  it 
away  that  it  may  go. 

"And  see,  if  it  goeth  up  by  the  way  of  his  own  coast 
to  Bethshemesh,  then  he  hath  done  us  this  great  evil :  but 
if  not,  then  we  shall  know  that  it  is  not  his  hand  that  smote 
us;  it  was  a  chance  that  happened  to  us. 

"And  the  men  did  so;  and  took  two  milch  kine,  and 
tied  them  to  the  cart,  and  shut  up  their  calves  at  home: 

"And  they  laid  the  ark  of  the  Lord  upon  the  cart,  and 
the  coffer  with  the  mice  of  gold  and  the  images  of  their 
emerods. 

"And  the  kine  took  the  straight  way  to  the  way  of 
Bethshemesh,  and  went  along  the  highway,  lowing  as  they 
went,  and  turned  not  aside  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the 
left ;  and  the  lords  of  the  Philistines  went  after  them  unto 
the  border  of  Bethshemesh. 

"And  they  of  Bethshemesh  were  reaping  their  wheat 
harvest  in  the  valley:  and  they  lifted  up  their  eyes,  and 
saw  the  ark,  and  rejoiced  to  see  it. 

"And  the  cart  came  into  the  field  of  Joshua,  a  Beth- 
shemite,  and  stood  there,  where  there  was  a  great  stone: 
and  they  clave  the  wood  of  the  cart,  and  offered  the  kine 
a  burnt  offering  unto  the  Lord. 

"And  the  Levites  took  down  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  coffer  that  was  with  it,  wherein  the  jewels  of  gold  were, 
and  put  them  on  the  great  stone:  and  the  men  of  Beth- 
shemesh offered  burnt  offerings  and  sacrificed  sacrifices 
the  same  day  unto  the  Lord." 

In  this  way  the  ark  was  restored  to  Israel  and  the 


THE    HISTORICAL    BACKGROUND. 


29 


kine  happened  to  deliver  it  in  Samson's  village,  Beth  She- 
mesh. 

We  note  in  this  strange  story  that  in  the  reading  of  i 
Sam.  V.  4,  the  italicized  words  "the  stump  of"  are  added 
by  way  of  interpretation ;  but  Hebrew  scholars  who  believe 
that  Dagon  is  a  fish  deity,  interpret  the  words  to  mean  that 
only  the  fishy  (i.  e.,  Dagon)  part  of  the  image  was  left. 

FISH    DEITIES. 

We  know  that  fish  deities  existed  among  the  Phoeni- 
cians.    Lucian  tells  us  that  he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes 


'W 

^ 

1^\^1 

im' 

■^°^ 

\X 

@fi ' 

L?^^^^ 

^  ^^ 

^4M.- 

4027  ASSYRIAN    FISH-PRIEST. 


A    FISH    SACRAMENT. 


a  goddess  named  Derketo,  shaped  in  the  form  of  a  mer- 
maid, and  so  it  appeared  quite  probable  that  Dagon  was 
the  male  counterpart  of  Derketo. 

The  Babylonians,  too,  had  fish  deities  and  priests 
dressed  in  fish  skins.  It  is  probable  (if  we  are  allowed 
to  judge  from  the  monuments)  that  they  celebrated  a 
sacrament  in  which  a  sacrificial  fish  was  eaten.  The  fish 
was  sacred  to  the  god  Ea,  the  third  member  of  the  great 
trinity  Anu,  Bel  and  Ea,  the  three  rulers  over  heaven, 
earth  and  water. 

Berosos,  a  Babylonian  priest  who  wrote  in  Greek,  tells 


30 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


US  of  a  deity  in  the  shape  of  a  merman,  who  bore  the 
name  of  Oannes  and  was  w^orshiped  as  the  founder  of  all 
civilization.  The  passage  is  preserved  by  Eusebius 
(Cliroii.  aniicn.,  p.  9  ed.  Mai,  Syncellus,  p.  28)  and  reads 
thus: 

"In  the  first  year  (of  the  world)  there  appeared,  rising- 


A  ribii  1)1  ii\ 


4208a 


up  from  the  Persian  Gulf,  a  being  endowed  with  reason 
whose  name  was  Oannes.  The  body  of  this  monster  was 
that  of  a  fish,  but  below  the  fish's  head  was  a  second  head 
which  was  that  of  a  man,  together  with  the  feet  of  a  man 
which  issued  from  his  tail,  and  with  the  voice  of  a  man; 
an  image  of  him  is  preserved  to  this  day.  This  being  passed 


THE   HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND. 


31 


the  day  among  men,  l)ut  without  taking  any  food,  teaching 
them  letters,  sciences,  and  the  first  principles  of  every  art, 
how  to  found  cities,  to  construct  temples,  to  measure  and 
assign  limits  to  land,  how  to  sow  and  reap ;  in  short  every- 
thing that  can  soften  manners  and  constitute  civilization, 
so  that  from  that  time  forward  no  one  has  invented  any- 
thing new.  Then  at  sunset  this  monster  Oannes  descended 
again  into  the  sea  and  spent  the  night  among  the  waves, 
for  he  was  amphibious.  Afterw^ards  there  appeared  sev- 
eral other  similar  creatures ....  Oannes  wrote  a  book  on 


;\^>;4^;itS^ 


BABYLONIAN    FISH    DEITIES.  421 1 

the  origin  of  things  and  the  rules  of  civilization,  w4iich 
he  delivered  to  mankind." 

This  Oannes  is  also  called  Odakon,  and  so  he  was 
naturally  identified  with  the  Philistine  Dagon,  and  all  the 
fish  deities  found  on  Babylonian  monuments  were  in  con- 
sequence (though  preposterously)  labelled  Babylonian  Da- 
gon s. 


DAGON,  A   GOD  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

The  theory  that  Dagon  is  a  fish  deity  and  that  he  is 
to  be  identified  with  a  male  Derketo  as  well  as  with  the 
Babylonian  Oannes,  depends  ultimately  upon  the  etymol- 


32  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

ogy  of  the  name  and  its  derivation  from  the  word  dag, 
''fish."  However,  in  spite  of  its  popular  acceptance  which 
is  based  upon  an  ancient  tracHtion  of  rabbinical  authority, 
it  is  upset  by  one  fact  of  an  unequivocal  nature  that  mili- 
tates against  it. 

Professor  Sayce^  calls  attention  to  a  seal  of  crystal  of 
the  seventh  century  B.  C,  preserved  in  the  Ashmolean 
Museum  at  Oxford,  England,  which  in  Phoenician  char- 
acters bears  the  inscription  "Baal  Dagon,"  and  in  addition 
exhibits  the  symbols  of  an  ear  of  wheat,  a  winged  solar 
disk,  a  gazelle,  and  several  stars,  but  no  figure  of  a  fish. 
This  is  unquestionable  evidence  that  Dagon  was  not  a  fish- 
deity  but  the  Philistine  god  of  agriculture,  whose  main 
symbol  was  an  ear  of  wheat,  and  accordingly  the  name 
should  not  be  derived  from  dag,  fish,  but,  as  Philo  Byblius 
informs  us,  from  the  Canaanitish  word  dagan,  wheat. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  the  original  text  of  the  Hebrew 
scriptures  was  written  without  vowels,  it  is  not  impossible 
that  we  should  read  Dagaii  instead  of  Dagon. 

The  legend  to  which  Philo  Byblius  refers  is  ancient 
and  the  mooted  passage  reads  as  follows : 

"Heaven  [Anu]  succeeding  to  the  kingdom  of  his  fa- 
ther, contracted  marriage  with  his  sister,  the  Earth,  and 
had  by  her  four  sons,  Ilus  (the  Hebrew  El,  or  Elohiin) 
who  is  called  Kronos,  and  Betylus  (the  Hebrew  Bethel), 
and  Dagon,  which  signifies  wheat,  and  Atlas."  And  that 
this  same  Dagon,  the  wheat  god,  is  truly  the  patron  of 
agriculture  is  further  corroborated  by  the  statement  made 
by  the  same  Philo  Byblius  that  he  is  the  inventor  of  the 
plow  and  the  first  manufacturer  of  bread,  wherefore  he 
is  called  by  his  devotees  "Zeus  Arotrios" ;  that  is,  "Jupiter 
the  plowman."^ 

Professor  Sayce  discusses  the  question  of  the  nature 

*  Higher  Criticism,  p.  327. 

"  Cf.  Eusebius,  Prccp.  Evang.,  i.  6. 


THE    HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND. 


33 


of  Dagon  at  full  length  in  his  Higher  Crificisiii,  and  on 
account  of  its  interest  we  here  quote  the  passage  in  full. 
He  says: 

"Dagon  is  popularly  supposed  to  have  had  the  form 
of  a  fish,  the  origin  of  the  belief  being  a  derivation  of 
the  name  from  the  Hebrew  word  dag  "a  fish."  But  there 
is  nothing  in  the  Scriptural  narrative  which  lends  coun- 
tenance to  such  an  idea.  On  the  contrary  the  hands  of 
Dagon  are  referred  to  (i  Sam.  v.  4)  and  the  loss  of  his 


^ 


A  BABYLONIAN  FISH   GOD.  ■*^^" 

Wrongly  identified  with  Dagon. 

head  and  hands  is  stated  to  have  left  him  a  mere  useless 
torso. 

"The  decipherment  of  the  cuneiform  texts  has  informed 
us  who  really  was  the  Fish-god  sometimes  depicted  upon 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian  seals.  He  was  Ea,  the  god  of 
wisdom  and  of  the  deep,  with  whom  Dagon  had  not  the 
smallest  connection.  Dagon,  in  fact,  was  a  divinity  of  Su- 
merian  origin,  who  is  associated  in  the  inscriptions  with 
Anu,  the  god  of  the  sky.     That  his  worship  was  carried 


34  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

westward  from  Babylonia  we  know  from  the  fact  that 
Sargon  'inscribed  the  laws'  of  Harran  'according  to  the 
wish  of  the  gods  Ann  and  Dagon.'  It  would  appear, 
therefore,  that  Dagon  was  one  of  the  numerous  deities 
whose  names  and  worship  were  introduced  into  Canaan 
during  the  long  period  of  Babylonian  influence  and  su- 
premacy. Thus  a  native  etymology  was  found  for  the 
name,  as  the  fragments  of  Sanchuniathon  preserved  by 
Philo  Byblius  expressly  inform  us,  in  the  Canaanitish  word 
dagan,  'corn.'  Dagon  became  a  god  of  corn,  an  agricul- 
tural deity  who  watched  over  the  growth  and  ripening  of 
the  crops. 

"This  will  explain  the  curious  trespass-offering  that 
was  made  by  the  Philistines  to  the  God  of  Israel.  'Five 
golden  mice.  . .  .that  mar  the  land'  were  among  the  offer- 
ings sent  by  them  along  with  the  ark.  Yahveh  of  Israel 
was  looked  upon  as  essentially  'the  Lord  of  hosts,'  'a  man 
of  war,'  and  as  such  he  was  the  antagonist  of  the  agri- 
cultural god  of  the  Philistine  cities.  He  had  proved  his 
superior  power  by  overthrowing  the  image  of  their  god, 
just  as  in  external  nature  the  corn  which  was  under  that 
god's  protection  was  destroyed  by  the  mice.  It  was  ac- 
cordingly natural  to  conclude  that  the  mice  were  the  in- 
struments and  symbols  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  that  the 
surest  way  of  appeasing  his  wa-ath  was  to  present  him 
with  them  in  a  costly  form." 

THE  SYMBOL  OF  THE  FISH. 

While  we  accept  Professor  Sayce's  opinion  as  to  the 
agricultural  character  of  Dagon,  we  do  not  deny  that  the 
Babylonians,  Syrians,  and  Phoenicians  worshiped  fish- 
tailed  deities.  On  the  contrary  we  are  convinced  of  the 
paramount  significance  of  the  fish  as  a  religious  symbol, 
and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  in  our 
discussion  of  the  Samson  legend.     A  study  of  the  fish  as 


THE   HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND. 


35 


a  religious  symbol  will  help  us  to  understand  the  origin 
of  Christianity,  and  its  intimate  connection  with  the  pagan- 
ism of  the  Gentile  religions. 

The  old  Latin  ])roverb>S'/  duo  faciunt  idem  non  est  idem, 
i.  e.,  'Tf  two  do  the  same,  it  is  not  the  same,"  is  true  in 
the  field  of  religion  more  than  in  other  domains.  Reverence 
for  sacred  statues  in  our  own  religion  is  deemed  devotion, 
in  other  religions,  idolatry.  Our  own  deifications  are  gods, 
those  of  the  others,  devils.    Our  own  symbols  are  profound. 


CHRIST   AS   A   FISH    ON   THE    ROOD. 
From  a  fresco  in  the  Catacombs. 


2578 


CHRISTIAN    SYMBOLS    ON    A    COR- 
3207  NELIAN  SEAL. 


SYMBOLS   ON   A   LAMP   FOUND   IN 
THE    CATACOMBS.  3209 


those  of  a  strange  faith,  ridiculous  if  not  disgusting.  The 
religious  significance  of  the  fish  is  a  queer  instance. 

How  tenacious  traditions  are,  appears  from  the  fact 
that  the  fish  is  a  sacred  Christian  symbol,  for  Christ  him- 
self is  frequently  represented  as  a  fish  or  a  dolphin  in  the 
catacombs.  These  pictures  w^ere  made  after  the  prece- 
dence of  Greek  art  in  which  the  fish,  and  especially  the 
dolphin,  was  sacred  to  Dionysus,  the  liberator,  the  god 
of  wine,  of  divine  enthusiasm,  and  resurrection. 

The  immediate  reason  whv  the  fish  became  sacred  to 


36  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

Christians  is  the  strange  coincidence  that  the  Greek  word 
Iclifhys,  which  means  "fish"  consists  of  five  letters  which 
form  the  acrostic  "Jesus  Christ,  God's  Son,  the  Saviour."* 
But  we  may  be  assured  that  this  is  a  mere  afterthought 
which  made  the  symbol  of  a  fish  acceptable  to  Christians, 
for  the  fish  was  deemed  sacred  without  it  and  before  this 
explanation  had  been  invented. 

BEELZEBUL  AND  BEELZEBUB. 

A  similar  strange  injustice  is  done  to  the  god  of  the 
Phoenicians,  who  is  called  Baalzebul,^  "the  lord  of  the 
high  house,"  a  name  also  applicable  to  Yahveh,  the  god 
of  Israel,  for  Solomon  speaks  of  "the  high  house"  he  has 
built  for  God  (i  Kings  viii.  13).  The  high  house  is  the 
temple  and  the  temple  symbolizes  the  heavens.  Thus  the 
lord  of  the  high  house  is  God  of  Heaven.  Yet  Baalzebul 
(or  Beelzebul)  has  positively  been  changed  into  a  name  of 
the  devil  in  the  New  Testament.  But  such  is  the  fate  of 
gods.  The  Seth  of  the  Hyksos,  corresponding  to  Yahveh 
of  the  Israelites,  became  the  Satan  of  the  Egyptians. 

Baalzebub  (or  Beelzebub)  which  has  been  substituted 
for  Beelzebul  is  commonly  translated  "fly  god,"  and  the 
assumption  has  been  made  that  Baalzebub  had  been  wor- 
shiped under  the  symbol  of  a  fly,  but  we  find  not  the  slight- 
est trace  of  fly  worship  among  the  Phoenicians.  Pausanias, 
however,  (VIII,  26,  7)  tells  us  that  Zeus  was  called  the 
remover  of  flies^  because  according  to  a  local  legend  he 
had  driven  away  a  dangerous  swarm  of  flies  from  Olym- 
pia ;  and  Clement  of  Alexandria  mentions  the  cult  of  "Zeus 
the  fly-killer"  in  Elis  (Protrcpf.  II,  38). 

Obviously  we  are  here  confronted  with  an  adventure 

*  IXOTS  =  J1JC0VS  Xpia-Tos  Qeov  Tioy  Hurrip, 

^  The  English  translation  reads  Beelzebub  (cp.  Matt.  x.  25;  xii.  24  and 
27;  Mark  iii.  22;  Luke  xi.  15-18  f.)  but  the  version  Beelzebul  is  better  estab- 
lished in  the  original  Greek. 

^  ZeCis  d-KOfivios. 


THE   HISTORICAL   BACKGROUND.  37 

of  Zeus,  who  (as  St.  Patrick  drove  out  the  snakes  from 
Ireland)  rescued  the  people  of  Greece  from  a  plague  of 
insects,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  Greek  legend  com- 
memorates the  annual  recurrence  of  the  disappearance  of 
the  flies  in  autumn.  Such  a  story  might  have  easily  been 
told  of  Heracles,  Izdubar  and  also  of  Samson.  It  belongs  to 
the  same  class  of  mythological  tales  and  there  is  as  little 
reason  to  regard  Baal  as  a  god  of  flies,  as  there  would  be 
to  look  upon  St.  Patrick  as  the  saint  of  snakes. 


4513 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON  LEGEND. 

BETH  SHEMESH. 

DEFENDERS  of  the  historicity  of  the  Samson  legend 
make  much  of  the  definite  locaHties  in  which  the  story 
has  received  its  final  setting.  In  fact  the  local  coloring  is 
made  the  main  argument  to  disprove  the  mythical  character 
of  our  hero.  Accordingly  it  will  be  indispensable  to  devote 
a  few  pages  to  the  geography  of  the  Samson  story.  We 
shall  see  that  the  places  of  Samson's  birth,  his  marriage, 
and  especially  his  death  have  been  positively  determined, 
though  other  places,  such  as  Lehi  Ramath,  remain  quite 
uncertain. 

We  do  not  believe  that  the  localization  of  the  adven- 
tures of  Samson  gives  any  support  to  the  historicity,  but 
on  the  contrary  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  selection 
of  his  home  furnishes  an  unequivocal  hint  of  Samson's 
solar  character,  for  Beth  Shemesh,  the  "house  (i.  e.,  the 
temple)  of  Shamash,"  was  a  sacred  site  of  sun  worship. 
If,  therefore,  a  solar  legend  became  crystalized  in  saga 
form  it  would  naturally  be  localized  in  and  around  such 
a  city  as  Beth  Shemesh. 

THE  VALLEY. 


A  few  miles  east  of  Jerusalem  we  reach  a  valley  (or 
wadi  as  valleys  are  called  in  the  Orient)   which  afifords 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON   LEGEND. 


39 


the  easiest  descent  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  this  is  the 
place  where  the  Samson  story  has  been  locahzed, — the 
ancient  habitation  of  the  tribe  of  Dan.  It  is  called  after 
the  villages  situated  therein,  first  Wadi  Beth  Hanina, 
then  Wadi  Ishma'in,  and  finally  Wadi  Es-Sarar.     The 


--^-' 


BETH    HANINA   IN  THE  VALLEY. 


*     ""^iairf^^av^j- 


landscape  is  mostly  romantic,  and  not  without  the  peculiar 
beauty  of  wild  scenery. 

Near  the  Philistine  plain  in  the  upper  part  of  the  Wadi 
Es-Sarar  on  its  left  or  southern  blufif,  the  present  village 


40 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


Ain-Shems  (which  means  "spring  of  the  sun")  is  built 
upon  the  site  of  the  ancient  Beth  Shemesh,  presumably 
a  center  of  solar  worship  in  the  prehistoric  days  of  pagan- 
ism. Here  the  ark  of  the  covenant  stood  for  a  long  time 
after  it  had  been  peacefully  returned  by  the  Philistines. 
On  the  opposite  bluff  about  two  and  one  half  miles  north- 
north-east  is  the  place  of  the  ancient  Zorah ;  and  opposite 


UPPER  WADI   ES-SARAR. 


Zorah,  within  its  immediate  vicinity,  only  about  one  and 
one-half  miles  northeast  is  the  place  Eshtaol. 

Zorah,  the  home  of  Samson,  is  commonly  translated 
"the  place  of  hornets,"  because  the  name  Zor'ah,^  is  spelled 
out  with  the  same  consonants  as  Zir'ah/  "hornet."    Both 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON   LEGEND. 


41 


words  are  derived  from  the  same  root  Zara  ^  "to  lay  low, 
to  castigate." 

The  meaning-  of  the  name  Eshtaol^  is  doul)tful,  l)iit 
Hebrew  scholars  assume  that  it  contains  the  root  SJiaaL" 
which  may  mean  "to  demand,"  "to  ask  for,"  or  "to  he 
hollow,"  and  is  connected  in  the  former  sense  with  the 
name  Shaul'"  (i.  e.,  Saul),  and  in  the  latter  sense  with 
Sheol,',  "the  pit,"  i.  e.,  the  habitat  of  the  dead. 


\^-^,<A^^  S^r 


r-^r  - 


SHRINE  OF  THE  WELI  SHAMAT. 


4515 


In  the  Wadi  Es-Sarar,  near  the  site  of  the  ancient  Zo- 
rah,  is  a  Moslem  holy  place  on  a  hill  which  rises  357  meters 
over  the  level  of  the  Mediterranean,  where  a  little  shrine 
is  sacred  to  the  weli*^  Shamat,  possibly  a  corruption  of  the 
word  Shamash  or  Shamshon.  It  is  built  in  the  usual  style 
of  these  whitened  sepulchres  with  a  little  cupola  and  its 
incumbent,  the  sheik  of  the  weli  Shamat,  claims  that  it  is 
the  tomb  of  the  Hebrew  Samson,  but  undoubtedly  all  he 
knows  of  Samson  he  has  learned  from  the  Christians  that 
have  visited  the  place. 


3  TD"^'         ■>  :"Nrif  ?<. 

The  word  zvcli  means  "saint." 


^N'li? 


c  ^1N2? 


y^az 


42 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


MAHANEH-DAN. 


Mahaneh-Dan  means  the  camp  of  the  tribe  of  Dan, 
which  (according  to  Judges  xviii.  12)  was  situated  west 
of  Kirjath-Jearim,  (i.  e.,  "the  city  of  the  woods"  probably 
the  present  village  El-Krya  el-  Enab)   and  it  was  called 


SITE   OF  ANCIENT   ZORAH. 


4509 


so  because  it  was  the  place  from  which  the  Danites  started 
from  Zorah  and  Eshtaol  for  their  northern  home.  But 
when  the  Danites  still  lived  in  southern  Palestine,  we  are 
told  that  it  was  the  place  where  the  spirit  of  Yahveh  began 
to  stir  in  Samson,  and  this  Mahaneh-Dan  is  said  to  be 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON   LEGEND.  43 

situated  between  Zorah  and  Eshtaol  (Judges  xiii.  25)  the 
site  of  the  l)urial  place  of  Samson's  family  (Judges  xvi. 
31).  The  two  geographical  specifications  (Judges  xiii.  25 
and  xviii.  12)  are  contradictory,  and  it  is  not  impossible 
that  we  should  read  Manahath  Dan  instead  of  Mehaneh 
Dan,  which  would  connect  the  place  with  the  name  of 
Samson's  father.  Manahath  was  one  of  the  sons  of  Sho- 
bal,  the  Horite  (see  Gen.  xxxvi.  23  and  i  Chron.  i.  40)  but 
the  name  is  also  mentioned  as  a  place  (see  i  Chron.  viii.  6) 
which  must  have  been  the  home  of  the  Manahethites  (the 
Manoah  Clan)  and,  being  situated  in  the  domain  of  Dan, 
may  very  well  have  also  been  called  Manahath-Dan.*^ 

Samson's  father  was  called  Manoah, ^'^  which  may  either 
be  derived  from  Noah,^^  meaning  "rest,"  with  the  prefix 
ma;  or  from  niaiiah,^^  "to  present  a  gift."  It  is  also  a  town 
near  Zorah,  and  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica  says:  "Manoah 
is  obviously  the  legendary  eponym  of  the  Manahathites 
of  Judah  or  Dan."  The  name  of  the  Manahathites  is  de- 
rived from  the  same  root  as  Manoah,  and  so  Manoah  may 
very  well  be  regarded  as  having  originally  been  the  pa- 
triarch from  whom  the  tribe  was  supposed  to  have  derived 
its  name. 

TIBNEH    AND    ASCALON. 

Walking  down  the  valley  westward  for  about  an  hour 
from  Beth  Shemesh,  we  find  the  place  Tibneh,  the  ancient 
Timnath,  where  Samson  met  with  his  first  love  adventure, 
and  where  he  married  the  daughter  of  a  Timnathite.  As- 
calon,  the  Philistine  city  where  Samson  slew  thirtv  Phil- 
istines, is  about  twenty-five  miles  further  down  on  the 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Ascalon^-'^  belonged  to  the  territory  assigned  to  the  lot 

®  See  Eiic.  Biblica,  s.  v.,  "Manahethites"  and  "Mahaneh  Dan." 
"The  Biblical  Ashkelon  (^V^p'^'K). 


44 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


of. Judah,  but  its  conquest  (Judges  i.  i8)  was  only  tempo- 
rary, for  in  the  enumeration  of  the  cities  of  Judah  (Joshua 
XV.  25)  it  is  not  mentioned,  and  this  indirect  statement  is 
corroborated  by  a  comparison  with  further  testimony  im- 
plied in  other  passages  (cf.  Judges  xiv.  19;  i  Sam.  vi.  17; 


RUINS    AT    TIBNEH:    SITE    OF    TIMNATH.  ^^"^ 

2  Sam.  i.  20;  Jer.  xxv,  20;  xlvii,  7).  Ascalon  survived  the 
curses  of  the  prophets  Amos  ( i.  8),  Zephaniah  (ii.  4)  and 
Zechariah  (ix.  5)  who  preached  against  it,  and  it  reached 
the  zenith  of  prosperity  at  the  time  of  Jesus.     Herod  the 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON   LEGEND.  45 

Great  embellished  it  with  magnificent  buildings,  because 
it  was  his  birthplace,  and  he  selected  it  as  a  residence  for 
his  sister  Salome. 

The  surrounding  country  was  famous  for  its  culture  of 
grape  wine  and  onions,  which  were  known  in  Italy  as 
Ascaloniae,  a  name  still  preserved  in  the  French  word 
echalottcs. 

During  the  crusades  Ascalon  was  repeatedly  captured 
and  lost  by  the  Christians,  but  finally  fell  permanently  into 
the  hands  of  the  Mohammedans  who  allowed  it  to  fall  into 
decay.  In  1832  Ibrahim  Pasha  tried  to  rebuild  it  but  his 
efforts  proved  vain  and  to-day  its  site  is  marked  merely 
by  a  heap  of  ruins. 

ETAM  AND  LEHI. 

The  cliff  Etam  has  been  identified  with  a  very  narrow 
gorge  in  the  Wadi  Ishma'in.  Though  the  cleft  is  very  im- 
posing and  seems  to  fit  all  the  recjuisites  of  the  story,  we 
ought  to  bear  in  mind  that  a  town  in  Judaea  was  actually 
called  Etam,  wdiich  is  situated  southeast  of  Bethlehem  and 
northeast  of  Tekoa.  The  cleft  in  the  neighborhood  of  this 
town  is  not  as  grand  as  the  cleft  in  the  valley  of  Ishma'in, 
but  it  is  probable  that  the  waiter  of  the  Samson  story  had 
the  latter  in  mind  and  not  the  former. 

The  site  of  the  Philistine  city  Lehi  is  not  known,  and 
all  attempts  to  identify  it  have  proved  failures.  With  it 
the  height  of  Lehi,  the  mortar  of  Lehi,  and  Enhaqqore, 
the  spring  of  the  crier,  i.  e.,  the  partridge  or  the  ass.  have 
remained  unidentified,  but  we  must  assume  that  they  were 
definite  localities  well  known  to  the  original  author  of  the 
story. 

GAZA. 

The  great  center  of  all  intellectual  and  commercial 
life  of  southern  Palestine  in  Samson's  days,  was  the  city 


46 


THE   STORY  OF   SAMSON. 


of  Gaza,  which  seems  to  have  been  Hke  a  httle  Paris  for  its 
vicinity.  We  must  conclude  from  the  Samson  story  that 
the  splendor  and  the  temptations  of  the  city  proved  a  great 


attraction  to  the  villagers  and  mountaineers  of  the  sur- 
rounding country.    Even  to-day  we  find  debris  of  magnifi- 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON   LEGEND. 


47 


cent  marble  edifices  which  tell  of  its  ancient  grandeur. 
Professor  Ebers  describes  it  as  follows : 

"The  present  city,  whose  ancient  name  as  now  pro- 
nounced by  the  inhabitants  sounds  approximately  like 
RaJisseJi,  is  either  extremely  muddy  or  very  dusty  accord- 
ing to  the  season  of  the  year.  The  more  insignificant  the 
modern  buildings  are,  the  more  noticeable  is  the  great 


IN   THE    OUTSKIRTS    OF    GAZA. 


4512 


number  of  marble  ruins  on  all  sides.  There  is  not  a  gar- 
den nor  a  courtyard  where  some  such  relics  have  not  been 
discovered,  w^hile  almost  every  threshold  and  almost  every 
lintel  consists  of  a  fragment  of  an  old  pillar.  In  the 
narrow  streets  the  passer-by  must  often  step  over  a  mud 
puddle  on  a  marble  cylinder  lying  directly  across  a  door- 


48 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


way.  If  he  proceeds  farther  he  will  probably  come  through 
a  stable  to  a  tiny  courtyard  on  one  side  of  which  is  the 


kitchen,  and  farther  on  through  a  passage-way  he  will 
reach  the  large  inner  court  paved  with  marble  around 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON   LEGEND. 


49 


which  open  a  series  of  rooms,  separated  from  the  court 
by  arcades.  Right  here  may  be  found  many  an  ancient 
pillar  with  capitals  of  every  description:  Corinthian,  Ro- 
man, as  appear  in  the  public  buildings  of  Herod,  and  By- 


VIEW  OF  HEBRON  FROM  ABRAHAM'S  OAK. 


4SI0 


zantine,  can  be  seen.  They  stood  originally  in  some  old 
temple,  and  then  perhaps  in  a  church,  and  later  were  dug 
out  of  the  ruins  and  used  in  building  the  house.  Moreover 
some  polished  marble  slabs  walled  in  between  red  Roman 


50 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SAMSON   LEGEND.  5 1 

bricks  give  the  walls  a  mottled  appearance.  It  is  as  if  we 
had  before  us  the  caricature  of  a  palace  of  Damascus. 

"It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  Samson  story  makes 
its  hero  appear  also  in  this  city  of  the  ancient  Philistines. 
He  is  said  to  have  taken  'the  door  of  the  gate  of  the  city 
and  the  two  posts,  and  went  away  with  them,  bar  and  all, 
and  put  them  upon  his  shoulders,  and  carried  them  up  to 
the  top  of  an  hill  that  is  before  Hebron'  (Judges  xvi.  3). 
The  Jebel  el-Muntar  at  the  southeast  of  the  city  is  pointed 
out  to-day  as  this  hill.  The  location  of  the  old  city  gate 
as  well  as  the  temple  of  Dagon  where  Samson  met  his 
death,  are  also  shown  to  travelers." 

Local  tradition  of  Gaza  naturally  selects  the  nearest 
hill  toward  the  east  as  the  point  to  which  Samson  carried 
the  gates.  This  interpretation  of  the  legend,  however,  flatly 
contradicts  the  Bible  story  which  makes  Samson  carry  the 
gates  about  forty  miles  up  into  the  high  lands  of  Judah 
to  the  old  city  of  Hebron  so  well  known  in  Hebrew  tradi- 
tion as  one  of  the  oldest  cities  of  Palestine  where  Abraham 
tented,  where  he  bought  a  burying  place  and  where  up 
to  this  day  a  weatherbeaten  tree  still  bears  the  name  of 
Abraham's  oak. 

While  Gaza,  Ascalon,  Ashdod,  Gath,  and  Ekron  are 
usually  referred  to  as  Philistine  cities,  we  must  not  think 
that  they  were  of  Philistine  foundation.  They  were  only 
colonized  by  these  strangers  that  came  by  sea  from  distant 
Mediterranean  islands;  for  the  Tel  Amarna  letters  men- 
tion the  same  cities  long  before  the  Philistine  immigration. 


4514 


SAMSON'S  BIRTH. 

THE  BIBLICAL  ACCOUNT. 

THE  birth  of  Samson  (Judges  xiii)  is  typical  of  many 
heroes  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  it  finds  a  realistic 
interpretation  if  we  consider  the  religious  traditions  of  the 
Semitic  Orient  to-day.  It  reads  as  follows  in  Prof.  G.  F. 
Moore's  translation: 


Samson's  Birth. 

The    Israelites    again    offended   Yhvh,    and    He 

gave  them  into  the  power  of  the  Philistines  for  forty 

years. ^ 

Now  there  was  a  certain  man  of  Zorah,  of  the  clan  of 

the  Danites,  named  Manoah,  whose  wife  was  barren  and 

had  no  child.     And  the  Messenger  of  Jhvh  appeared  to 

the  woman,  and  said  to  her:  "Thou  art  barren  and  hast 

borne  no  child;  but  thou  shalt  conceive  and  bear  a  son. 

Now,  therefore,  beware,  and  do  not  drink  wine  or  other 

intoxicating  drink,  and  do  not  eat  anything  unclean.    For 

thou  art  with  child,  and  wilt  bear  a  son;  and  no  razor 

shall  touch  his  head,  for  from  the  womb  the  boy  shall  be 

^  The  indented  passage  has  been  added  by  a  Deuteronomist  (D),  who 
here  vents  his  indignation  at  the  pagan  spirit  of  some  features  of  the  story 
without  otherwise  interfering  with  the  text. 


Samson's  birth.  53 

a  religious  votary;  he  zvill  make  a  beginning  of  delivering 
Israel  from  the  Philistines^^ 

The  woman  came  and  told  her  husband:  "A  man  of 
God  came  to  me,  and  his  appearance  was  like  that  of  the 
Messeno-er  of  God,  very  venerable ;  but  I  did  not  ask  him 
whence  he  came,  nor  did  he  tell  me  his  name.  And  he  said 
to  me:  'Thou  art  with  child,  and  wilt  bear  a  son;  now, 
therefore,  do  not  drink  wine  nor  intoxicating  drink,  and 
do  not  eat  anything  unclean,  for  from  the  womb  to  the 
day  of  his  death  the  boy  shall  be  a  religious  votary.'  " 

Then  Manoah  besought  Jhvh,  and  said:  'T  pray  thee, 
O  Lord,  let  the  man  of  God  whom  Thou  didst  send  come 
again  to  us  and  teach  us  what  we  shall  do  to  the  boy  that 
is  to  be  born." 

And  God  hearkened  to  the  prayer  of  Manoah,  and  the 
Messenger  of  God  came  again  to  the  woman  as  she  was 
tarrying  in  the  field.  Manoah  her  husband  was  not  with 
her.  And  the  w^oman  ran  at  once,  and  told  her  husband, 
saying  to  him :  "The  man  who  came  to  me  the  other  day 
has  appeared  to  me." 

So  Manoah  rose,  and  followed  his  wife;  and  when  he 
came  to  the  man,  Manoah  said  to  him :  "Art  thou  the  man 
who  spoke  to  the  woman?" 

He  answered:  'T  am." 

Then  Manoah  said:  "Now,  when  that  which  thou  dost 
foretell  comes  true,  what  shall  be  the  rule  for  the  boy  and 
his  mode  of  life?" 

And  the  Messenger  of  Jhvh  replied  to  Manoah:  "Let 
the  woman  avoid  all  that  I  bade  her ;  she  must  not  eat  any 
product  of  the  vine,  and  let  her  not  drink  wine  or  other 
intoxicating  drink,  nor  eat  anything  unclean ;  every  thing 
that  I  commanded  her  she  must  observe." 

^  The  italicized  passage  is  a  comment  added  by  a  later  scribe  or  redactor 
of  Ephraimitic  scriptures.  He  recognizes  Samson's  divine  mission,  but  bear- 
ing in  mind  that  he  accomplished  nothing  speaks  of  it  as  "a  beginning  of 
delivering  Israel  from  the   Philistines." 


54 


THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 


And  Tvlanoah  said  to  the  Messenger  of  Jhvh  :  "Let  us 
press  thee  to  stay,  and  let  us  prepare  thee  a  kid." 

But  the  Messenger  of  Jhvh  answered  Manoah: 
"Though  thou  press  me,  I  will  not  eat  of  thy  food;  but  if 
thou  wilt  make  a  burnt-ofifering,  thou  must  offer  it  to 
Jhvh/' 


THE    ANNUNCIATION    OF    SAMSON'S    BIRTH. 
By   Rubens. 


4973 


And  Manoah  said  to  the  Messenger  of  Jhvh  :  "What 
is  thy  name?  that  if  thy  prediction  come  true  we  may 
honor  thee." 

The  Messenger  of  Jhvh  answered  him :  "Why  dost 
thou  inquire  my  name,  seeing  it  is  ineffable?" 

So  Manoah  took  a  kid  [and  the  cereal  offering]^  and 
offered  it  as  a  burnt-offering  on  the  rock  to  Jhvh,  the 

^The  two  bracketed  passages  are  post-Exilic  glosses. 


Samson's  birth.  55 

Wonder  Worker.  Wlien  the  flame  ascended  heavenward 
from  the  aUar,  the  Messenger  of  Jhvh  ascended  in  the 
flame  of  the  ahar,  while  Manoah  and  his  wife  were  looking 
on;  and  they  fell  on  their  faces  to  the  earth. 

And  the  Messenger  of  Jhvh  appeared  no  more  to 
Manoah  and  his  wife.  Then  Manoah  knew  that  it  was 
the  Messenger  of  Jhvh.  And  Manoah  said  to  his  wife: 
"W^e  shall  certainly  die,  for  we  have  seen  a  god."  But 
his  wife  said  to  him:  "If  Jhvh  had  meant  to  kill  us,  He 
would  not  have  received  at  our  hands  a  burnt-offering, 
and  would  not  have  shown  us  all  these  things,  and  would 
not  have  announced  to  us  such  a  thing." 

And  the  woman  bore  a  son,  and  named  him  Samson; 
and  the  boy  grew  up,  and  Jhvh  blessed  him.  And  the 
spirit  of  Jhvh  began  to  stir  him  [at  Mahaneh-Dan,  be- 
tween Zorah  and  Eshtaol]. 

THE  HOLY   MEN   OF  THE   SE^HTES. 

Prof.  Samuel  Ives  Curtiss,  who  made  a  special  study 
of  the  subject,  discovered  that  the  ancient  Semitic  rites 
mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,  are  still  practiced  among 
the  common  people  of  Syria.  He  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  ancient  religion  of  the  proto-Semites  even  to-day 
is  the  religion  of  the  common  people  in  Hither  Asia;  and 
so  it  happens  that  many  stories  in  the  Old  Testament  find 
an  explanation  in  customs  that  are  still  prevalent.  This 
is  evinced  by  the  atonement  blood-sacrifices  performed  for 
the  purpose  of  effectiveness  of  prayer ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
monotheistic  doctrines  of  the  three  religions,  now  oflicially 
established  in  the  Orient,  the  Weli  or  patron  saint  of  a 
local  shrine  is  still  the  main  refuge  of  the  natives.  Sacri- 
fices are  still  offered  on  the  heights  as  well  as  before  the 
entrance  to  the  house  or  tent,  and  the  door  posts  and  lintels 
are  still  besmeared  with  the  blood  of  the  victim  for  the 
sake  of  sanctifying  the  place  and  protecting  it  against 


56  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

evil  influences/  The  main  thing  of  interest  is  the  part 
which  holy  men,  representatives  of  the  deity,  or  of  the 
Weli,  have  been  playing  ever  since  and  are  playing  still 
all  over  Syria  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  the  parts  in- 
habited by  Protestants ;  for  Protestantism  is  the  only  re- 
ligion that  by  its  sobriety  cuts  ofif  the  ancient  practices 
and  superstitions. 

Professor  Curtiss  has  devoted  a  special  chapter  to  the 
holy  men  of  Syria.  They,  as  well  as  the  religious  sheiks, 
are  supposed  to  be  possessed  of  mysterious  powers  and  all 
of  them  practice  exorcism.     Says  Professor  Curtiss: 

"The  'holy  men'  and  the  religious  sheiks  cast  out  evil 
spirits,  which  resemble  closely  those  about  whom  we  read 
in  the  time  of  our  Lord.  They  exorcise  evil  spirits  from 
those  who  are  ill.  They  think  such  persons  are  possessed 
by  the  jinn,  who  seem  to  be  the  same  as  the  demons  in  the 
time  of  Christ. 

"There  are  certain  saints  that  have  almost  the  powers 
of  physicians  assigned  to  them.  Some  of  them  would  seem 
to  be  specialists.  They  perform  cures  for  rheumatism, 
for  bad  eyes,  and  other  ailments.  One  shrine,  near  Solo- 
mon's hot-air  baths,  about  four  hours  from  Karyaten,  in 
the  Syrian  desert,  is  good  for  barren  women. 

"As  barrenness  is  considered  almost  the  greatest  dis- 
grace that  can  befall  an  Oriental  woman,  and  girls  are 
not  reckoned  in  the  enumeration  of  a  family,  a  barren 
woman  often  seeks  a  son  from  a  local  saint  or  weli;  thus 
the  story  of  Hannah  is  not  unfrequently  repeated. 

"One  of  the  most  conspicuous  cases  was  related  to  me 
by  Rev.  E.  A.  Hanauer,  of  Jerusalem,  who  was  an  eye- 
witness of  part  of  the  incident.  There  was  a  Syrian 
woman  who  was  barren,  and  who,  in  the  bitterness  of  her 
soul,  went  to  Neby  Daud,^  on  the  traditional  site  of  Mount 

■*  For  further  details  of  Professor  Curtiss's  work  see  "The  Religion  of 
Proto-Semitism"  in  The  Open  Court,  Vol.  XVIII,  pp.  421  ff. 
°  i.  e..  Prophet  David. 


SAMSON  S   BIRTH.  57 

Zion,  and  vowed  that  if  the  saint  would  give  her  a  son 
she  would  give  him  a  fat  sheep.  In  due  time  a  boy  was 
born.  The  father  and  mother,  on  their  way  to  the  shrine, 
stopped  to  rest  at  a  house  where  the  missionary  heard  the 
story  from  the  lips  of  the  glad  mother. 

"Sometimes  a  man  vows  that  if  the  saint  will  grant 
him  a  son  he  will  pay  for  his  weight  in  silver  coins.  The 
teacher  of  a  Greek  school  in  Safita  was  present  at  the 
payment  of  such  a  vow.  When  the  silver  placed  in  the 
balances  nearly  tipped  the  scale,  the  father  threw  in  two 
or  three  gold  pieces. 

"Sometimes  a  woman,  in  her  ardent  desire  for  a  son, 
will  vow  that  if  the  saint  will  grant  her  request  she  will 
sacrifice  a  sheep  each  year.  Such  was  the  vow  of  a  woman 
at  the  cave  where  Abraham  is  reputed  to  have  been  born 
at  Berza  near  Damascus.  At  the  last  report  she  had  al- 
ready sacrificed  three  sheep. 

"There  can  be  no  question  that  barren  women,  as  the 
result  of  such  vows,  sometimes  receive  the  power  to  bear 
children.  Perhaps  this  is  an  indication  of  the  domination 
of  the  mind  over  the  body;  or,  as  a  native  physician  sug- 
gests, the  very  exertion  consequent  on  visiting  a  shrine 
may  bring  the  body  into  a  normal  condition." 

The  holy  men  are  not  priests  nor  have  they  anything 
to  do  w^ith  the  dervishes  of  the  Moslems,  or  the  monks  of 
the  Christians.  They  are  a  type  of  their  own  and  may 
be  anything  but  holy  or  moral  in  the  present  acceptance 
of  the  words,  for  they  correspond  to  the  Sodomites^  of  the 
Old  Testament,  whom  the  religious  reformers  in  the  time 
of  Josiah  removed  from  the  temple  of  Jerusalem'^  in  the 
year  621  B.  C. 

The  submissiveness  of  the  common  people  to  the  "holy 
men"  is  almost  incredible,  for  we  learn  that  uneducated 

'The  words   "holy"   and   "sodomite"    (in   Hebrew   Kadcsh)    are  derived 
from  the  same  root  kadash,  which  means  "to  separate,  to  set  apart." 
'2  Kings  xxiii.  7. 


58  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

women  of  the  country  do  not  shrink  from  their  embrace. 
Says  Ctirtiss: 

"So  far  as  they  are  not  imposters,  they  are  men  whom 
we  would  call  insane,  known  among  the  Syrians  as  mcjnuii, 
possessed  by  a  jinn,  or  spirit.  They  often  go  in  filthy  gar- 
ments, or  without  clothing.  Since  they  are  regarded  as 
intoxicated  by  deity,  the  most  dignified  men,  and  of  the 
highest  standing  among  the  Moslems,  submit  to  utter  in- 
decent language  at  their  bidding  without  rebuke,  and  ig- 
norant Moslem  women  do  not  shrink  from  their  approach, 
because  in  their  superstitious  belief  they  attribute  to  them, 
as  men  possessed  by  God,  a  divine  authority  which  they 
dare  not  resist. 

"In  a  certain  family  in  Nebk  the  wife,  a  perfectly  re- 
spectable woman,  apparently  with  the  consent  of  her  hus- 
band, considers  it  wrong  to  refuse  a  'holy  man.'  Her 
name  is  well  known  in  the  community  where  she  lives." 
Mr.  Frazer  in  The  Golden  Bough  (page  147)  says: 
"Women  are  taught  to  believe  that  the  highest  bliss 
for  themselves  and  their  families  is  to  be  obtained  by 
yielding  themselves  to  the  embraces  of  these  beings  in 
whom  the  divine  nature  mysteriously  coexists  with  the 
form  and  appetite  of  true  humanity." 

Professor  Curtiss  adds  the  following  description: 
"Their  appearance,  and  the  expressions  regarding 
them,  afiford  some  illustrations  of  the  popular  estimate 
of  ancient  seers,  or  prophets,  in  the  time  of  Hosea :  'The 
prophet  is  a  fool,  the  man  that  hath  the  spirit  is  mad';^ 
and  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah,  the  man  who  made  himself 
a  prophet  was  considered  as  good  as  a  madman.^  We 
are  reminded,  too,  of  one  of  the  signs  by  which  Saul  was 
considered  a  prophet,  when  he  stripped  ofif  his  clothes,  and 
lay  down  naked  all  that  day  and  all  that  night,  so  that 

*  Hos.  ix.  7.    Cf.  George  Adam  Smith,  The  Book  of  the  Tivelve  Prophets, 
New  York,  1896,  p.  28  n. 
°  Gen.  xxix.  26. 


Samson's  birth.  59 

the  people  in  view  of  these  demonstrations,  with  which 
they  were  so  famihar,  said,  'Is  Saul  also  among  the 
prophets?'  "^'^ 

THE  KID  OFFERING. 

The  story  of  Samson's  conception  is  very  realistically 
told,  and  its  occurrence,  perhaps  not  in  one  case  only  hut 
in  many  instances  of  the  same  kind,  is  c^uite  plausible  if 
considered  in  the  light  of  ancient  Semitic  customs  which 
are  so  inveterate  that  they  are  preserved  even  to-day. 
Manoah,  far  from  having  any  misgivings  about  the  report 
of  his  wife,  is  greatly  pleased  when  she  meets  the  stranger 
again,  provides  for  the  demanded  ritual  sacrifice,  and  the 
child  that  is  to  be  born  is  promised  to  lead  the  life  of  a 
Nacir  from  the  moment  of  his  birth. 

The  sacrifice  of  the  kid  is  not  without  significance,  as 
will  appear  from  a  comment  by  Paul  Haupt  written  in  ex- 
planation of  the  references  to  kids  in  that  collection  of 
Hebrew^  love  ditties  which  are  incorporated  in  the  Bible 
under  the  title  "The  Song  of  Solomon."  Professor  Haupt 
says : 

"The  phrase.  Teed  thy  kids,'  in  the  answer  of  the  lover 
has  a  special  meaning.  A  kid  was  the  customary  present 
given  to  a  female  friend  (Arab,  gadlqc)  who  was  visited 
by  a  man  from  time  to  time.  When  Judah  saw  his  daugh- 
ter-in-law, Tamar,  who  had  covered  her  face  and  wrapped 
herself,  he  said  to  her,  I  will  send  thee  a  kid ;  and  wdien 
Samson  visited  his  Philistine  'friend'  at  Timnath  he  brought 
her  a  kid.  Such  a  gift  was  probably  expected  at  every 
visit  of  the  husband.  The  'bride'  remained  at  her  father's 
house,  and  the  'husband'  visited  her  there.  According  to 
Ammianus  Marcellinus  (xiv.  4)  marriage  among  the  Sar- 
acens was  a  temporary  contract  for  which  the  wnfe  received 
a  price.     In  Persia  these  temporary  alliances  are  still  rec- 

"  I   Sam  xix.  21-24. 


60  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

ognized  as  legal.  In  the  Book  of  Tobit  (ii.  12)  we  read 
that  after  Tobit  had  been  stricken  with  blindness,  his  wife, 
Anna,  went  to  a  factory  where  women  were  employed  as 
weavers,  and  when  the  owners  gave  her  one  day  a  kid  in 
addition  to  her  wages,  she  fell  out  with  her  husband  who 
would  not  believe  her  story  and  insisted  on  the  kid  being 
returned  to  the  owners  of  the  factory,  as  he  felt  ashamed 
of  his  wife.  We  know  also  that  a  young  he-goat  was  the 
offering  of  the  Greek  hetserse  to  the  goddess  of  love  Aphro- 
dite." In  the  Samson  story  we  are  told  that  "Samson 
went  to  visit  his  wife,  taking  with  him  a  kid." 

Steinthal  regards  the  story  of  Samson's  birth  as  of 
later  origin,  which  may  or  may  not  l)e  so,  yet  there  is  no 
reason  for  any  discrimination  for  it  is  quite  in  keeping 
with  the  stories  of  Samson's  deeds.  One  thing,  however, 
must  have  been  typical  in  the  ancient  traditions  of  solar 
heroes,  namely,  that  their  birth  was  not  an  ordinary  oc- 
currence but  an  event  of  supernatural  interference.  Solar 
heroes  are  supposed  to  be  the  children  of  a  god  and  their 
birth  is  always  miraculous. 

THEOPHANIES. 

The  birth  story  of  Samson  is  considered  as  one  of  the 
best  told  theophanies  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  it  may 
be  worth  while  to  repeat  here  for  the  benefit  of  readers 
not  versed  in  recent  results  of  theolog}^  a  few  well-known 
facts  concerning  the  development  of  the  Jewish  God  idea. 
In  those  Biblical  passages  which  belong  to  the  older  period, 
God  (or  rather  Yahveh)  is  humanized  to  such  an  extent 
that  he  (as  for  instance  in  the  creation  story)  takes  a 
walk  in  the  garden  for  his  recreation  and  speaks  with 
Adam  and  Eve.  God  was  believed  to  appear  in  fire  and 
it  was  supposed  to  be  dangerous  or  even  fatal  to  see  God 
or  to  hear  his  voice.^ 

'Theophanies  are  recorded  in  Gen.  xvii,  i;  xxxv.  6;  Ex.  iii.  6;  xix.  21; 
xxxiii.  20  ff. ;  Judges  vi.  22;  xiii,  22,  etc. 


SAMSON  S   BIRTH. 


6i 


The  most  important  theophany  is  related  in  the  third 
chapter  of  Exodus  where  Yahveh  appears  to  Moses  in  the 
bush  which  "burned  with  fire  and  the  bush  was  not  con- 
sumed." Here  God  reveals  to  Moses  his  name  Yahveh- 
which  w^as  regarded  with  so  much  awe  that  later  genera- 
tions ceased  to  pronounce  it  and  in  reading  the  scriptures 


THE  BURNING  BUSH. 
By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld. 


substituted  for  it  the  word  adonaj^  i-.  e.,  *'my  Lord."^  But 
God  could  not  call  himself  "my  Lord,"  and  so  the  rabbis 
introduced  in  this  special  passage   (Ex.  iii.   14)   another 


2  *mn 


3  ^r-x 


*  Since  the  name  "Yahveh"  was  always  read  "adonaj,"  the  three  vowels 
of  addonCij  (shortness  of  vowel  as  e,  then  o,  and  finally  the  broad  a)  were 
written  under  the  ineffable  tetragram,  which  produced  the  form    HV,"!^  result- 


62  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

substitution  for  the  holy  name,  viz.,  cJieyeJi  ('T^'^'),  which 
means  "I  am,"  or  rather,  "I  shall  be."^ 

Yahveh  must  be  an  old  Semitic  deity  as  the  word 
appears  in  ancient  Babylonian  names  such  as  Ya've-ilu 
mentioned  by  Delitzsch.®  Among  the  Israelites  its  use  was 
originally  limited  to  the  southern  tribes,  especially  Judah, 
Benjamin  and  Dan,  and  so  Yahveh  is  naturally  the  God  of 
Samson.  In  northern  Israel  God  was  called  Elohim  and 
also  Zebaoth,  i.  e.,  "[Lord  of]  the  starry  Hosts,"  but  when 
the  different  Hebrew  tribes  of  whom  presumably  only  the 
southern  ones  had  been  in  Egypt,  coalesced  into  a  nation 
called  Israel,  the  three  names  were  identified  to  mean  one 
and  the  same  God,  the  God  of  Israel,  and  Jeremiah  uses 
all  three  at  once  calling  God  "Yahveh  Elohim  Zebaoth." 

Yahveh  was  the  God  of  Jethro,  the  priest  of  Midan, 
a  Kenite,  who  lived  near  Mount  Horeb,  and  there  Yahveh 
revealed  himself  to  Moses,  Jethro's  son-in-law. 

Yahveh  said  unto  Moses  (Ex.  vi.  2-3) : 

"I  am  YHVH,  and  I  appeared  unto  Abraham,  unto 
Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob  as  El  Shaddaj,  but  by  my  name 
JHVH  was  I  not  known  to  them." 

El  Shaddaj^  as  well  as  Elohim,  is  a  plural  form  de- 
rived from  sJiad,^  "strong,"  and  is  commonly  translated 
"God  Almighty."  The  same  word  slightly  modified  as 
shcdiin^  (singular  sJied^^)  denotes  pagan  deities  and  is 
translated  in  the  Septuagint  by  "demons."^ ^ 

ing  among  people  unacquainted  with  Hebrew  traditions  in  the  monstrous 
combination  of  the  word  "Jehovah."  This  queer  word  formation  is  of  com- 
paratively recent  origin,  for  it  does  not  occur  anywhere  before  the  Reforma- 
tion and  was  invented  in  the  sixteenth  century  by  Protestant  Bible  trans- 
lators who  knew  enough  Hebrew  to  read  the  letters  as  they  were  written, 
but  not  enough  to  understand  the  meaning,  origin  and  history  of  the  word. 

°  The  first  part  of  verse  14  is  obviously  a  gloss  which  has  been  inserted 
into  the  text.  Cf.  Arnold's  "The  Divine  Name  in  Exodus  HI,  14,"  in  the 
Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXIV,  Pt.  2. 

^  Babel  and  Bible,  p.  150  ff.     Cliicago:  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


SAMSON  S   BIRTH. 


63 


The  summit  of  Mount  Sinai  or  Horeb  was  regarded 
as  the  place  where  Yahveh  resided  and  so  EHjah  visits 
Mount  Horeb  where  he  finds  Yahveh  in  the  still  small 
voice.  In  Isaiah's  remarkable  vision  (Is.  vi.  i  fif. )  Yahveh 
appears  between  seraphim  (winged  serpent-spirits),  while 
Ezekiel  sees  him  surrounded  by  winged  cherubim ;  the  sole 
of  their  feet  was  like  the  sole  of  a  calf's  foot,  they  had  the 
hands  of  a  man  under  their  wings,  and  each  had  four 
faces,  the  faces  of  a  man,  a  lion,  an  ox  and  an  eagle  (Ez. 
i.  5-10),  and  the  color  of  Yahveh  himself  was  as  of  amber 
above,  and  below  as  of  fire. 


THE  STILL   SMALL  VOICE. 


Most  naive  is  the  description  of  Moses,  Aaron,  Nadab 
and  Abihu,  and  the  seventy  elders  of  Israel  meeting  God 
on  Mount  Sinai  (Ex.  xxiv.  10),  where  we  read  that  "they 
saw  the  God  of  Israel  and  there  was  under  his  feet  as  it 
were  a  paved  work  of  a  sapphire  stone,  and  as  it  were  the 
body  of  heaven  in  his  clearness." 

In  a  similar  way  Yahveh  converses  with  Moses  and 
members  of  his  family,  one  striking  instance  being  re- 
corded in  Num.  xii.  i  ff.,  where  God  appears  visibly  in  the 
shape  of  a  pillar  of  cloud. 


64  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

Again  in  Exodus  xxxiii,  11  we  read  that  "the  Lord 
spake  to  Moses  face  to  face,  as  a  man  speaketh  unto  his 
friend."  In  contradiction  to  these  theophanies  Yahveh  says 
to  Moses  (Ex.  xxxiii.  20)  :  ''Thou  canst  not  see  my  face, 
for  there  shall  no  one  see  me  and  live."  However,  to  show 
Moses  an  extraordinary  favor,  Yahveh  will  allow  him 
to  catch  a  glimpse  of  his  glory  from  behind: 

''And  the  Lord  said,  Behold,  there  is  a  place  by  me, 
and  thou  shalt  stand  upon  a  rock :  and  it  shall  come  to  pass, 
while  my  glory  passeth  by,  that  I  will  put  thee  in  a  clift  of 
the  rock,  and  will  cover  thee  with  my  hand  while  I  pass  by : 
and  I  will  take  away  mine  hand,  and  thou  shalt  see  my  back 
parts:  but  my  face  shall  not  be  seen." 

Less  comical  but  not  less  pagan  and  assuredly  more 
barbarous  is  another  theophany  related  in  Exodus  v.  24-26, 
in  which  Yahveh's  wrath  toward  Zipporah,  the  wife  of 
Moses,  is  calmed  only  after  the  circumcision  of  their  son 
Gerson.  The  crudeness  of  the  God-conception  preserved 
in  this  strange  passage  marks  these  verses  as  a  relic  of  the 
savage  age  which  has  presumably  been  retained  by  the  re- 
dactor only  because  the  incident  narrated  might  silence  the 
objection  that  a  mother  would  naturally  have  against  the 
rite  of  circumcision;  and  the  Jews  of  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity regarded  this  ceremony  as  an  essential  and  indis- 
pensable part  of  their  religion,  for  it  was  the  sign  of  their 
covenant  with  God. 

The  passage  reads: 

"And  it  came  to  pass  by  the  Avay  in  the  inn,  that  the 
Lord  [yhvh]  met  him  [i.  e.,  Moses],  and  sought  to  kill 
him. 

"Then  Zipporah  took  a  sharp  stone,  and  cut  ofif  the  fore- 
skin of  her  son,  and  cast  it  at  his  feet,  and  said,  Surely  a 
bloody  husband  art  thou  to  me. 

"So  he  [jhvh]  let  him  [Moses]  go:  then  she  said, 
A  bloodly  husband  thou  art,  because  of  the  circumcision." 


Samson's  birth.  65 

In  the  later  period  of  Jewish  monotheism,  the  invisi- 
bihty  of  God  became  more  and  more  a  part  of  the  Jewish 
faith,  and  so  theophanies  in  "any  manner  of  simiHtude" 
were  denied  by  the  Deuteronomist  (Deut.  iv.  15).  Still 
God  was  believed  to  have  appeared  to  Abraham  and  Jacob 
and  to  have  spoken  to  them  (Ex.  vi.  3).^^ 

It  has  been  suggested  that  many  of  the  old  theophanies 
have  been  modified  by  post-Exilic  redactors  into  appear- 
ances of  angels.  The  idea  that  God  should  appear  in  human 
form  became  offensive,  and  so  the  words  "messenger  of 
Yahveh"  were  substituted  for  "Yahveh."  This  view  is 
supported  by  the  fact  that  in  Gen.  xvi.  7,  9,  11,  it  is  stated 
that  "the  angel  of  Yahveh"  appeared  to  Hagar  and  spoke 
to  her;  yet  in  the  same  story  (verse  13)  we  read  that  it 
was  "Yahveh"  himself  who  spoke  to  her.  In  the  same 
way  "the  angel  of  Yahveh"  appears  to  Gideon  (Judges 
vi.  22)  but  he  calls  him  "Yahveh  Elohim." 

These  inconsistencies  may  simply  be  a  result  of  the 
redactor's  carelessness  in  his  alterations.  At  any  rate  the 
angel  or  messenger  of  Yahveh  is  frequently  identified  with 
Yahveh.  ^^ 

One  peculiar  confusion  which  can  only  be  due  to  the 
insufficient  alterations  of  a  late  redactor  occurs  in  the 
story  of  Abraham's  theophany  at  Mamre,  Gen.  xviii,  where 
we  read  of  three  men  who  are  addressed  sometimes  in  the 
singular  and  sometimes  in  the  plural.  One  of  the  three 
is  identified  with  Yahveh,  while  the  other  two  are  described 
(in  xix)  as  two  angels,  yet  these  in  turn  too  are  addressed 
and  also  speak  in  the  singular  and  indeed  they  speak  and 
act  as  Yahveh  himself  (xix.  21). 

In  consideration  of  the  probability  that  "the  messenger 

"  Cp.  Gen.  xvii.  i ;  xxxv.  9. 

''See  such  narratives  as  Gen.  xxii.  Iiff. ;  xviii.  2;  xv.  3  ff. ;  Num.  xxii. 
32-35,  especially  35  to  be  compared  with  xxiv.  13;  Judges  xi.  1-5;  vi,  11-24; 
compare  especially  verses  11  and  20  fif.  Differences  between  Yahveh  and  his 
angel  are  made  in  Gen.  xxiv.  7,  40  (compare  verses  2."]  and  48)  ;  Num.  xxii. 
31;  Judges  xiii.  8;  2  Samuel  xxiv.  15,  17. 


66  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

of  Yahveh"  is  a  later  interpolation  for  Yahveh  himself, 
we  may  very  well  assume  that  according  to  the  ancient 
Samson  legend,  Yahveh  himself  appeared  to  Manoah's 
wife,  and  indeed,  we  may  even  venture  the  assumption 
that  according  to  the  oldest  form  of  the  legend,  Samson 
was  regarded  as  the  son  of  Yahveh.  It  is  a  matter  of 
course  that  this  idea  could  no  longer  be  countenanced  by 
the  Deuteronomists  from  their  rigorous  monotheistic 
standpoint,  and  so  we  may  regard  the  birth  story  of  Sam- 
son as  we  have  it  now,  to  be  an  edition  ad  usiuii  dclpliini. 

THE  MEANING  OF  "NAZIR." 

The  children  of  Israel  were  invaders  of  Palestine.  The 
Canaanites  and  Philistines  who  had  possession  of  the  land 
lived  in  cities  and  must  have  looked  with  fear  and  disdain 
upon  these  gypsylike  marauders  who  came  in  such  num- 
bers as  to  endanger  the  safety  of  the  country.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Israelites  at  the  time  of  the  invasion  looked  upon 
civilization  as  pagan  and  unnatural.^  They  lived  in  tents 
and  scorned  houses.  They  made  their  fires  by  friction, 
not  by  flint  and  steel.  They  worshiped  on  altars  of  un- 
hewn stones  not  yet  touched  by  the  chisel  of  man,  under 
trees  and  at  wells,  and  cherished  a  contempt  for  gods 
fashioned  by  human  hands.  They  had  a  primitive  kind 
of  bread  baked  w^ithout  leaven,  and  they  abstained  from 
fermented  drinks,  not  because  they  were  intoxicating,  as 
a  later  interpretation  has  it,  but  because  the  natural 
product  w^as  spoiled  by  the  artificial  interference  of  human 
culture  which  was  considered  an  alienation  from  God,  the 
divinity  of  nature. 

The  priestly  redactors  explain  the  word  nazir  as  being 
derived  from  the  root  nazar,"  the  niphal  form  of  which 
means  "to  separate,"  and  the  Nazir"^  was  assumed  to  be 

^  For  explanation  of  this  most  important  point  see  the  author's  article 
"Yahveh  and  Manitou,"  The  Monist,  IX,  p.  382. 

2")^  3TTj    (The  pronunciation  of  T  is  dz.) 


Samson's  birth.  67 

holy  because  separated  from  profane  society  for  the  pur- 
pose of  leading  a  life  of  devotion. 

Samson  is  regarded  as  a  typical  Nazir.  In  fact,  being 
historically  the  first  one  who  is  called  by  that  name,  he  is 
regarded  as  the  prototype  and  ideal  of  Nazirism. 

Whatever  the  etymology  of  the  word  may  be,  the  orig- 
inal meaning  is  certainly  not  "separateness"  in  the  sense 
of  "holiness,"  but  a  natural  state,  a  condition  in  which 
the  artificial  factor  of  human  culture  has  not  yet  inter- 
fered with  man's  primitive  habits  of  life. 

In  the  jubilee  year,  for  instance,  when  agriculture  is 
suspended,  the  vine  which  is  left  unpruned  is  called  nazir, 
and  the  jubilee  year  as  such  is  celebrated  in  recollection 
of  Israel's  primitive  condition  when  it  was  still  walking 
with  Yahveh  in  the  desert. 

As  the  nazir  grape  is  the  fruit  of  those  vines  which 
have  not  been  pruned  but  are  allowed  their  natural  growth, 
we  will  scarcely  be  mistaken  when  we  regard  the  Nazir 
as  a  man  whose  life  develops  untrammeled  by  civilization. 
No  razor  is  suffered  to  touch  his  head  and  the  exuberant 
mass  of  his  hair  is  typical  of  the  whole  man. 

GENTILE  NAZIRISM. 

If  the  Samson  legend  regards  the  hair  as  the  sign 
of  Samson's  vitality,  it  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  folk- 
lore of  other  nations,  especially  the  Syrians,  and  we  can 
have  no  doubt  that  this  notion  dates  back  to  the  most  prim- 
itive age  in  which  the  rays  of  the  sun  were  regarded  as 
the  hair  of  the  sun-god.  The  sun-god  loses  his  strength 
when  he  is  shorn  of  his  hair  in  winter,  and  a  faithful  dev- 
otee voluntarily  sufifers  the  same  fate  so  as  to  partake 
also  of  his  final  triumph  and  resurrection. 

The  custom  of  regarding  the  hair  as  sacred  to  a  god, 
preeminently  so  to  the  sun-god,  is  not  limited  to  Palestine 
but  may  be  traced  throughout  Syria  and  extended  even 


68  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

to  Greece.  Lucian  tells  us  in  his  most  interesting  essay 
on  "The  Syrian  Goddess"  that  the  people  in  Hierapolis 
of  Syria  are  addicted  to  a  custom  which  is  otherwise  also 
known  to  have  obtained  in  Troizene  of  Argolis  in  Greece. 

Lucian  says  (last  chapter  of  De  Dea  Syr.) :  "There 
is  a  law  of  the  Troizenians  according  to  which  no  youth 
nor  virgin  is  allowed  to  marry  until  they  have  sacrificed 
their  hair  to  Hippolytus,  and  a  similar  custom  prevails 
in  Hierapolis.  There  people  let  the  hair  of  children  grow 
from  childhood  and  regard  it  as  something  sacred  which 
should  not  be  touched  by  shears.  When  they  reach  pu- 
berty a  lock  is  cut  off  in  the  temple  and  the  same  together 
with  the  first  beard  is  suspended  in  the  sanctuary  in  a 
little  silver,  sometimes  golden,  vase  upon  which  the  name 
of  the  donor  is  engraved." 

Lucian  being  a  native  of  Samosata,  which  is  situated 
near  Hierapolis,  says  he  himself  had  undergone  the  cere- 
mony of  hair-cutting  and  had  a  lock  of  his  hair  offered  in 
the  temple,  where,  as  he  writes,  it  might  still  be  seen  at 
the  date  on  which  he  composed  his  essay. 

Customs  of  letting  the  hair  grow  and  of  cutting  it  as 
a  sacrificial  offering  to  the  deity,  are  found  all  over  the 
world  and  date  back  to  prehistoric  times.  Vows  to  that 
effect  are  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament.  Paul  had 
"shorn  his  head  in  Cenchrea  for  he  had  a  vow"  (Acts 
xviii.  i8),  and  the  same  incident  is  mentioned  of  four 
men  in  another  passage  in  Acts  (xxi.  23). 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  underlying  thought  of 
this  practice  is  also  intimately  connected  with  the  priestly 
observance  of  shaving  the  head.  This  is  notably  true  of 
the  ancient  Egyptian  priesthood  and  of  Buddhist  monks; 
yet  there  is  nowhere  in  the  sacred  books  of  either  religion 
any  plausible  reason  to  account  for  the  custom.  In  India 
the  custom  of  shaving  the  hair  from  a  religious  motive 
is  imquestionably  older  than  Buddha  himself,  for  we  are 


Samson's  birth.  69 

told  that  when  Prince  Gautama  retired  from  the  world, 
he  cut  ofif  his  hair,  and  the  legend  has  it  that  the  tuft  of 
hair  was  carried  up  hy  the  devas  to  the  sky  where  it  formed 
the  constellation  of  the  "Hairknot,"  called  in  our  astron- 
omy *'the  hair  of  Berenice."  Here  the  practice  of  cutting 
one's  hair  in  token  of  renouncing  the  world  is  presupposed 
as  generally  prevalent  in  India  and  an  explanation  is  not 
deemed  necessary. 

In  a  similar  way  as  baptism  is  now  commonly  per- 
formed by  a  mere  sprinkling,  and  an  actual  emersion 
under  the  water  is  not  generally  deemed  necessary,  because 
in  symbolic  acts  the  mere  indication  is  sufficient  if  per- 
formed in  the  right  spirit  and  by  the  proper  authorities, 
so  in  the  Christian  world  the  shaving  of  the  hair  has  been 
reduced  to  a  small  spot  called  the  tonsure, — which  practice 
is  observed  even  to-day  in  the  Roman  and  Greek  Catholic 
Churches,  constituting  a  last  reminiscence  of  this  most 
ancient  sacrifice  of  the  hair. 

THE   ETYMOLOGY    OF    "NAZARENE." 

The  word  and  title  Nazir  (for  it  has  become  an  appel- 
lation of  a  certain  class  of  Hebrew  saints)  is  of  unusual 
interest  to  us  on  account  of  its  confusion  with  the  name 
of  the  sect  to  which  Jesus  belonged  who  is  usually  called 
"Jesus  the  Nazarene"  or  "Nazarite."  Commonly  there 
is  a  distinction  made  between  the  words  Nazarene  and 
Nazarite  by  referring  one  to  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes 
and  the  other  to  the  village  of  Nazareth.  This  explana- 
tion is  cjuite  ancient  in  Christian  church  history,  but  not 
pre-Christian,*  and  is  based  on  the  invention  of  a  village  of 
Nazareth,  unknown  in  the  geography  of  Palestine,  not 
only  before  and  at  the  time  of  Jesus,  but  for  centuries 
after  him.  However,  as  soon  as  the  village  En  NaSara 
had  been  identified,  for  no  other  reason  than  a  similarity 

*The  words  Na^ap^df  and  "Nal^upaloc  are  used  interchangeably  in  the  Gospels 


SAMSON  S    BIRTH.  71 

of  sound,  with  Nazareth,  the  translation  of  "the  Nazarite" 
as  "he  of  Nazareth"  became  firmly  established  in  the  tra- 
ditions of  Christian  theology,  and  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  disciples  of  Jesus  are  called  Nazarenes,  and 
Paul  "a  ring-leader  of  the  Nazarenes,"  though  none  of 
them  was  born  in  Nazareth.  Moreover  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  according  to  Mark  ii.  i,  Capernaum  and  not 
Nazareth  was  the  home  of  Jesus. 

The  title  on  the  cross  of  Christ  in  the  Gospel  according 
to  John  reads : 

"ItfffovS  6  Na8,Gopaio^  6  /iaffiXevS  rcov  lovdaioov." 

This  can  not  mean  "Jesus  of  Nazareth"  but  must  mean 
"Jesus  the  Nazarene,"  for  Nazareth,  or  rather  the  village 
En  NaSara  did  not  belong  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Pontius 
Pilate;  on  the  other  hand,  if  it  meant  an  inhabitant  of  a 
town  the  definite  article  would  scarcely  have  been  appli- 
cable. 

Whether  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes  is  a  reorganization 
of  the  ancient  Nazirs,  or  another  movement  of  separatists, 
need  not  here  be  considered.  They  may  have  been  (as 
Prof.  W.  B.  Smith  of  Tulane  University  suggests)^  Sal- 
vationists, and  it  is  not  improbable  that  "Nazarene"  meant 
Saviour  and  was  used  as  a  title. 

Though  the  sibilants  in  Nazir  and  En  NaSara  (i.  e., 
Nazareth)  and  also  in  Nazarene  are  dififerent,  a  fusion 
of  the  meaning  into  one  conception  is  by  no  means  ex- 
cluded, because  in  the  Greek  transliteration  both  sounds, 
ts  and  ^5.  were  changed  into  the  Greek  z  (0- 

Matthew  (ii.  23)  connects  the  name  Nazarene  with 
the  verb  nalar'^  which  means  "to  sprout,"  saying  that 
Jesus  shall  be  called  a  "Nazarene"  because  the  prophet 
speaks  of  him  as  ncicr!^  i.  e.,  "  a  sprout"  out  of  the  roots 
of  Jesse  (Is.  xi.  i). 

*Cf.  W.  B.  Smith,  "The  Meaning  of  the  Epithet  Nazarene."  in  The 
Moiiist.  XV,  p.  25.     See  also  the  author's  pamphlet.  The  Age  of  Christ,  p.  8. 


y2  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

The  word  Nazorean  (or  Nazarene)  should,  according 
to  Professor  Smith,  be  derived  from  the  Aramaic  word 
natrona,^  corresponding  to  the  Hebrew  naiar-ya  which 
means  "guardian"  or  "protector,"  and  the  use  of  the  ar- 
ticle, "Jesus  the  Nazarene,"  indicates  that  it  is  a  title  just 
as  much  as  "Jesus  the  Saviour."  Whether  or  not  the 
title  ha  nalarya,  "the  guardian"  was  identified  in  the  time 
of  Christ  with  the  ancient  Hebrew  Jia  nazir  is  for  our 
present  purpose  a  matter  of  no  concern.  If  it  seems  im- 
probable on  account  of  the  difference  of  the  sibilants,  the 
one  being  ts  or  the  German  3,  the  other  the  English  dz,  it 
remains  true  that  the  two  notions  were  soon,  perhaps  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  and  only  among  Gentile 
Christians,  fused  into  one,  and  still  later  when  the  term 
Nazarene  was  no  longer  miderstood  in  its  Greek  trans- 
literation, we  meet  with  the  assumption  of  the  village  of 
Nazareth  which  had  never  existed  before. 

THE  NOMAD  LIFE  OF  ISRAEL. 

The  invasion  of  Palestine  by  the  Israelites  is  paralleled 
in  other  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  especially  in  Babylon.  We 
know  that  the  fertile  plains  of  the  two  rivers  were  fre- 
quently inundated  with  Semitic  tribes  who  by  their  num- 
bers soon  crowded  out  the  native  population.  The  found- 
ers of  civilization  in  this  part  of  the  world,  the  Sumerians 
and  Akkadians,  appear  to  have  succumbed  in  this  way  to 
immigrants  who  may  first  have  appeared  in  their  territory 
in  little  hordes,  but  grew  soon  so  numerous  as  to  supersede 
the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  who  as  a  separate  nation  had 
long  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the  earth  when  our 
first  historical  records  begin.  Their  language  had  been 
supplanted  by  Semitic  dialects,  and  continued  only  in  lit- 
erature as  a  language  of  the  learned  that  was  kept  up  not 

*  The  Aramaic  \^  ordinarily  changes  in  the  Hebrew  to  ij  and  the  letter 
having  the  pronunciation  of  the  German  ^,  being  the  sharp  ts,  is  here  trans- 
cribed by  a  German  \. 


SAMSON  S   BIRTH.  73 

unlike  Latin  in  the  middle  ages.  The  desert,  and  espe- 
cially Arabia,  was  a  breeding-place  of  nations.  The  nom- 
ads of  the  desert  multiplied  too  freely  for  the  scant  re- 
sources of  livelihood,  and  so  they  invaded  the  more  fertile 
neighboring  territories  in  large  numbers  again  and  again, 
which  resulted  in  several  consecutive  conquests. 

We  must  assume  that  the  Israelites  lived  for  a  long 
time  after  the  fashion  of  gypsies  in  Palestine,  and  the 
friction  between  them  and  both  Canaanites  and  Philis- 
tines was  but  natural.  Sometimes  peace  was  established 
between  the  contending  parties,  and  then  these  wandering 
nomads  carried  on  a  trade  in  sheep  and  goats  and  perhaps 
other  goods  among  the  more  civilized  old  settlers  of  the 
country.  But  we  can  not  doubt  that  frequently  they  were 
wronged  and  taken  advantage  of  even  by  the  established 
authorities,  and  must  have  had  as  many  grudges  against 
them  as  the  modern  gypsies  may  have  against  the  white 
man's  police.  At  the  same  time  we  know  that  just  as  the 
gypsy  regards  the  world  as  his  own  which  he  has  to  take 
by  theft  or  robbery,  so  the  Semitic  invaders  regarded  the 
country  as  a  donation  of  their  God  Yahveh. 

The  nomad  life  of  their  ancestors  was  never  fully  for- 
gotten in  Israel,  and  the  Rechabites,  a  tribe  that  kept  up 
the  old  style  of  desert  life,  are  praised  by  Jeremiah  (xxxv) 
as  especially  acceptable  to  Yahveh/  and  those  pious  Jews 
who  in  later  days  wished  to  live  the  ideal  life  of  their  an- 
cestors, took  a  vow  not  to  have  their  hair  shorn,  and  called 
themselves  Nazirs. 

'  For  further  details  see  the  author's  article  "Yahveh  and  Manitou",  The 
Moiiist,  IX,  p.  131. 


SAMSON'S  LIFE. 

THE   BIBLICAL   ACCOUNT. 

THE  story  of  Samson  is  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Judges 
(xiv-xvi)  and  it  is  translated  by  Professor  Moore  in 
the  PoIvcJiroiiic  Bible  as  follows: 


Sanisoji's  Marriage  and  iihaf  Followed. 

Samson  went  down  to  Timnath,  and  saw^  there  a  woman 
of  the  Philistines.  When  he  went  home  he  told  his  father 
and  mother:  "I  have  seen  at  Timnath  a  woman  of  the 
Philistines;  now,  therefore,  get  her  for  me  to  be  my  wnfe." 
But  his  father  [and  his  mother]^  remonstrated  with  him: 
'Ts  there  not  a  woman  among  the  daughters  of  thy  kins- 
men, or  in  all  ni}-  people,  that  thou  must  go  and  take  a 
wife  among  those  uncircumcised  Philistines?" 

But  Samson  answered  his  father:  ''Get  this  woman 
for  me;  she  pleases  me." 

His  father  and  mother  did  not  know  that  this  stirring 
was  from  Jhvh,  because  He  w^as  seeking  a  grievance 
against  the  Philistines.     [At  that  time  the  Philistines  ruled 


Moore. 


The  bracketed  words  are  post-Exilic  additions,  according  to  Professor 


SAMSON  S   LIFE. 


75 


over  Israel.]      So  Samson  went  down,    [with  his  father 
and  mother,*]  to  Timnath;  and  when  [they]  came  to  the 


*^^f5:^^ 


SAMSON    AND    THE    LION. 

By  Raphael. 


vineyards  of  Timnath,  a  fierce  young  Hon  came  roaring 
toward  him.    And  the  spirit  of  Jhvh  came  mightily  upon 

*  The  story  of  the  killing  of  the  lion  implies  that  Samson  went  down  alone 
to  his  bride,  which  indicates  that  his  father  did  not  accompany  him  on  the  way. 


76  THE   STORY  OF   SAMSON. 

him,  and  he  tore  the  Hon  asunder  as  a  man  tears  a  kid; 
he  had  nothing  whatever  in  his  hands.  [But  he  did  not 
tell  his  father  and  mother  what  he  had  done.]  Then  he 
went  down,  and  talked  to  the  woman,  and  she  was  pleasing 
to  Samson.  When  he  returned,  after  a  time,  [to  marry 
her,]  he  turned  aside  to  see  the  carcass  of  the  lion,  and 
found  a  swarm  of  bees  in  the  body  of  the  lion,  and  honey. 
And  he  scraped  out  the  honey  into  his  hands,  and  went 
on,  eating  as  he  went,  and  came  to  his  father  and  mother, 
and  gave  some  to  them,  and  they  ate;  but  he  did  not  tell 
them  that  he  had  scraped  the  honey  from  the  body  of  the 
lion.  And  [his  father]  went  down  to  the  woman;  and 
Samson  gave  a  feast  there,  for  so  bridegrooms  used  to  do. 
And  [when  they  saw  him,  they]  took  thirty  comrades,  and 
they  were  with  him.^ 

And  Samson  said  to  them:  "I  will  propound  to  you  a 
riddle;  if  ye  can  tell  me  what  it  is,  during  the  seven  days 
that  the  feast  lasts,  [and  find  it  out,]  I  will  give  you  thirty 
fine  robes  and  thirty  festival  dresses.  And  if  ye  cannot 
tell  me,  then  ye  shall  give  me  thirty  fine  robes  and  thirty 
festival  dresses." 

They  answered:  "Propound  your  riddle,  let  us  hear  it !" 

He  said: 

"Out  of  the  eater  came  something  to  eat, 
And  out  of  the  strong  came  something  sweet." 

And  they  were  not  able  to  guess  the  riddle  [for  six 
days;]  so  [on  the  seventh  day]  they  said  to  Samson's 
wife :  ''Cozen  thy  husband,  and  make  him  tell  us  the  riddle, 
or  we  will  burn  thee  and  thy  family.  Didst  thou  invite 
us  hither  to  impoverish  us?" 

°  The  only  possible  understanding  of  the  present  text  is,  that  when  the 
Philistines  saw  how  formidable  Samson  was  (or  according  to  Ixx,  because 
they  were  afraid  of  him),  they  appointed  thirty  special  guards  to  see  that  he 
did  no  mischief.  In  the  original  story,  on  the  contrary,  Samson  chose  thirty 
young  Philistines  as  his  companions  to  take  the  place  which  in  an  ordinary 
marriage  would  have  been  filled  by  his  own  kinsmen  and  friends. — G.  F.  Moore. 


SAMSON  S  LIFE. 


17 


So  Samson's  wife  hung  on  him  with  tears,  and  said: 
Thou  only  hatest  me,  and  dost  not  love  me  at  all.    Thou 


hast  given  a  riddle  to  my  countrymen,  and  hast  not  ex- 
plained it  to  me." 


78  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

He  answered :  "Lo,  I  have  not  told  even  my  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  I  tell  thee?" 

But  she  hung  on  him  weeping  the  seven  days  that  they 
kept  the  feast;  and  on  the  seventh  day  he  told  her,  because 
she  so  beset  him;  and  she  told  the  riddle  to  her  country- 
men. 

-  On  the  seventh  day,  before  he  entered  the  bridal  cham- 
ber, the  men  of  the  town  said  to  him:  "What  is  sweeter 
than  honey?  and  what  is  stronger  than  a  lion?" 

He  replied : 

"If  with  ni}-  heifer  ye  did  not  plovtgh, 
Ye  had  not  found  out  my  riddle,  I  trow." 

TJicn  the  Spirit  of  Ihvh  came  mightily  upon  him  and 
he  zucnt  doivn  to  Ashkelon,  and  killed  thirty  of  them,  and 
took  their  spoil,  and  gave  the  festival  dresses  to  those  zvho 
had  found  out  the  riddled 

And  he  was  very  angry,  and  went  away  to  his  home. 
But  Samson's  bride  was  given  to  the  comrade  who  had 
been  his  bridal  companion. 

After  a  time,  at  the  season  of  wheat  harvest,  Samson 
went  to  visit  his  wife,  taking  with  him  a  kid.  But  when 
he  was  about  to  go  into  the  inner  apartment  to  his  wife 
her  father  said  to  him:  "I  thought  that  thou  must  certainly 
hate  her,  so  I  gave  her  to  thy  friend ;  but  her  younger  sister 
is  more  beautiful  than  she;  take  her  instead." 

Then  Samson  said  to  them:  *Tn  this  case  I  shall  not 
be  to  blame  if  I  do  the  Philistines  an  injury," 

So  Samson  went  and  caught  three  hundred  foxes,  and 
took  torches,  and  turned  the  foxes  tail  to  tail,  and  fastened 
a  torch  between  every  pair  of  tails,  and  set  fire  to  the 
torches,  and  turned  the  foxes  loose  among  the  Philistines' 

*  The  italicized  passage  is  considered  by  Professor  Moore  a  later  addi- 
tion. It  interrupts  the  context  and  could  easily  be  omitted.  Professor  Moore 
says:  "Ashkelon  is  two  days  journey  from  Timnath,  on  the  sea-coast.  It  has 
been  conjectured,  with  much  plausibility,  that  this  raid  is  the  afterthought  of 
an  editor  to  whom  it  seemed  unbecoming  that  Samson  should  run  away  with- 
out paying  a  wager.     It  has  no  consequences  in  the  following  story." 


Samson's  life.  79 

standing  grain,  and  burned  both  the  shock  and  the  stand- 
ing grain,   [and  the  vineyards  and  ohve  trees]. 

When  the  Phihstines  inquired:  "Who  has  done  this?" 
they  were  told:  "Samson,  the  Timnathite's  son-in-law;  be- 
cause the  Timnathite  took  Samson's  wife,  and  gave  her 
to  Samson's  friend." 

Then  the  Philistines  went  up  and  burned  her  and  her 
father's  family. 

And  Samson  said  to  them :  "Since  ye  act  thus,  T  swear 
I  will  be  avenged  on  you;  and  after  that,  I  will  leave  off." 

So  he  smote  them,  hip  and  thigh,  with  great  slaughter; 
and  went  down,  and  stayed  in  the  cleft  of  the  Cliff  Etam. 

Then  the  Philistines  came  up,  and  encamped  in  Judah, 
and  made  a  raid  upon  Lehi.  And  when  the  people  of 
Judah  asked  them:  "Why  have  ye  come  up  against  us?" 
they  said:  "We  have  come  to  make  Samson  prisoner,  to 
do  to  him  as  he  has  done  to  us." 

So  three  thousand  men  of  Judah  went  down  to  the  cleft 
of  Cliff  Etam,  and  said  to  Samson:  "Dost  thou  not  know 
that  the  Philistines  rule  over  us?  What  is  this  that  thou 
hast  done  to  us?" 

He  replied:  "As  they  did  to  me  I  have  done  to  them." 

Then  they  told  him :  "We  have  come  down  to  make  thee 
prisoner,  and  deliver  thee  to  the  Philistines ;"  and  Samson 
said:  "Swxar  to  me  that  ye  yourselves  will  not  fall  upon 
me." 

They  said :  "No ;  but  we  will  bind  thee,  and  deliver  thee 
to  them;  we  will  not  put  thee  to  death." 

So  they  bound  him  with  two  new  ropes,  and  brought 
him  up  from  the  Cliff'. 

Now  when  he  reached  Lehi  the  Philistines  came  to 
meet  him  with  loud  shouts,  and  the  spirit  of  Jhvh  came 
mightily  upon  him,  and  the  ropes  that  were  on  his  arms 
l)ccame  like  flax  that  has  caught  fire;  his  bonds  melted 
from  off  his  hands.     And  he  found  the  fresh  jaw-bone 


8o 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


of  an  ass,  and  reached  out,  and  picked  it  up,  and  killed 
with  it  a  thousand  men.     Then  Samson  said: 
"With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass 
I  assailed  my  assailants  ; 
With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass 
Have  I  slain  a  thousand  men." 

After  he  had  said  this,  he  threw  away  the  jaw-bone 
which  he  had  in  his  hand ;  thus  the  place  came  to  be  called 


SAMSON    SLAYING    THE    PHILISTINES.  ''""' 

By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld. 

Ramath-lehi.  And  he  was  very  thirsty,  and  called  to 
Jhvh  :  "Thou  hast  given  thy  servant  this  great  victory, 
and  shall  I  now  die  of  thirst,  and  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
uncircumcised?" 

Then  God  cleft  The  Mortar  which  is  in  Lehi,  and  water 
flowed  from  it;  and  he  drank,   and  his   spirits  revived. 


SAMSON  S   LIFE. 


8i 


(Hence  the  spring-,  which  is  in  Lehi  to  this  day,  got  the 
name  En-hakkore. ) 

Samson  jiidged  Israel  in  the  days  of  the  Phihs- 
tines  for  twenty  years/' 

Samson  Carries  off  the  Gates  of  Ga:;a. 

Thence  Samson  went  down  to  Gaza,  and  saw  there  a 
harlot,  and  w^ent  in  to  her.    When  the  Gazeans  were  told 


SAMSON   CARRIES  OFF  THE  GATES  OF   GAZA. 


that  Samson  w^as  come  thither,  [they  went  about,  and  lay 
in  wait  for  him  all  night  at  the  gate  of  the  city,  and]  they 
kept  still  all  night,  saying:  "Let  us  wait  till  the  morning 
light,  and  then  kill  him." 

But  Samson  lay  till  midnight ;  and  then  at  midnight  he 
rose,  and  laid  hold  of  the  doors  of  the  city  gate  and  the 

'The  indented  passage  is  a  Deuteronomic  gloss. 


82  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

two  gate-posts,  and  pulled  them  up,  bar  and  all,  and  put 
them  on  his  shoulders,  and  carried  them  up  to  the  top  of 
the  hill  which  is  in  front  of  Hebron. 

Samson  and  Delilah. 

After  this,  Samson  fell  in  love  with  a  woman  in  the 
\'alley  of  Sorek,  whose  name  was  Delilah. 

And  the  princes  of  the  Philistines  came  to  her,  and 
said:  "Cozen  him,  and  find  out  what  makes  his  strength 
so  great,  and  how  we  can  cope  with  him,  and  bind  him, 
to  overpower  him ;  and  we,  on  our  part,  will  each  give  thee 
eleven  hundred  shekels  of  silver." 

So  Delilah  asked  Samson :  "Tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  what 
makes  thy  strength  so  great,  and  how  couldst  thou  be 
bound  to  overpower  thee?" 

Samson  answered:  "If  men  should  bind  me  with  seven 
new  bowstrings  which  have  not  been  dried,  my  strength 
would  leave  me,  and  I  should  be  like  any  other  man." 

Then  the  princes  of  the  Philistines  brought  her  seven 
new  bowstrings  which  had  not  been  dried,  and  she  bound 
him  with  them.  She  had  the  men  waiting  in  concealment 
in  the  inner  apartment.  Then  she  said  to  him:  "The  Phil- 
istines are  upon  thee,  Samson!"  But  he  snapped  the  bow- 
strings as  a  strand  of  tow  snaps  at  the  breath  of  fire;  so 
the  secret  of  his  strength  was  not  discovered. 

Thereupon  Delilah  said  to  Samson:  "Lo,  thou  hast 
cheated  me,  and  told  me  falsehoods;  now  tell  me  where- 
with thou  canst  be  bound." 

He  answered:  "If  men  should  bind  me  fast  with  new 
ropes  w^ierewith  no  work  has  been  done,  my  strength 
would  leave  me,  and  I  should  be  like  any  other  man." 

So  Delilah  took  new  ropes,  and  bound  him  with  them ; 
and  said  to  him :  "The  Philistines  are  upon  thee,  Samson !" 
(Now  the  men  were  lying  in  wait  in  the  inner  apartment.) 
But  he  snapped  the  ropes  ofif  from  his  arms  like  thread. 


SAMSON  S   LIFE. 


83 


Then  Delilah  said  to  Samson:  "Hitherto  thou  hast 
cheated  me,  and  told  me  falsehoods;  tell  me  wherewith 
thou  canst  be  bound." 


SAMSON    AND    DELILAH. 
By  Dore. 


And  he  said  to  her:  "If  thou  shouldst  weave  the  seven 
braids  of  my  hair  into  the  we1),  and  beat  it  up  with  the  pin, 


84 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


my  strength  would  leave  me,  and  I  should  be  like  any  other 
man." 

So  while  he  was  asleep  Delilah  took  the  seven  braids 
of  his  hair,  and  wove  them  into  the  web,  and  beat  it  up  with 
the  pin.  Then  she  said  to  him:  "The  Philistines  are  upon 
thee,  Samson !"  And  he  started  from  his  sleep,  and  pulled 
up  the  loom  with  the  web. 


DELILAH  S  TREACHERY. 
By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld. 


Then  she  said  to  him:  "How  canst  thou  say:  T  love 
thee,'  when  thou  dost  not  confide  in  me?  Three  times  now 
thou  hast  cheated  me,  and  hast  not  told  me  what  makes 
thy  strength  so  great." 

And  as  she  beset  him  every  day  with  her  importunities, 
and  pressed  him  hard,  he  grew  tired  to  death  of  it,  and 


Samson's  life.  85 

told  her  his  whole  secret;  and  said  to  her:  "A  razor  has 
never  come  near  my  head,  for  from  my  birth  I  have  been 
a  religious  votary;  if  my  head  were  shaved,  my  strength 
would  depart  from  me,  and  I  should  become  weak,  and 
like  the  rest  of  men." 

When  Delilah  saw  that  he  had  told  her  his  whole  se- 
cret, she  sent  a  message,  and  summoned  the  princes  of  the 
Philistines,  saying:  "Come,  this  once;  for  he  has  told  me 
his  whole  secret."  So  the  princes  of  the  Philistines  came 
to  her,  bringing  the  money  with  them. 

And  she  put  Samson  to  sleep  in  her  lap,  and  called 
a  man  who  shaved  off  the  seven  braids  of  his  hair;  and 
he  began  to  be  brought  under,  and  his  strength  departed 
from  him.  Then  she  said:  "The  Philistines  are  upon  thee, 
Samson!"  and  he  awoke  from  his  sleep,  and  said  to  him- 
self: 'T  shall  get  off  as  I  have  done  time  and  time  again. 
and  shake  myself  free;"  for  he  did  not  know  that  Jhvii 
had  departed  from  him. 

Then  the  Philistines  seized  him  and  bored  out  his  eyes, 
and  took  him  down  to  Gaza,  and  made  him  fast  with 
shackles,  and  he  was  set  to  turning  the  mill  in  the  prison. 
But  his  hair  began  to  grow  again  after  it  had  been  shaved 
off. 

The  princes  of  the  Philistines  came  together  at  Gaza 
to  off'er  a  sacrifice  to  their  god  Dagon,  and  to  hold  festiv- 
ities; for  they  said:  "Our  god  has  given  our  enemy,  Sam- 
son, into  our  power." 

And  when  the  people  saw  him  they  set  up  a  shout  in 
honor  of  their  god;  for  they  said:  "Our  god  has  given  into 
our  power  our  enemy,  who  devastated  our  fields,  and  slew 
many  of  us."  And  when  they  were  in  high  spirits,  they 
commanded:  "Call  Samson,  that  he  may  make  sport  for 
us."  So  they  called  Samson  from  the  prison,  and  he  made 
sport  before  them. 

And  they  placed  him  between  the  columns.    Then  Sam- 


86 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


MADE  FAST  WITH  SHACKLES/ 
By  Max  Klein. 


SAMSON  S   LIFE. 


8/ 


son  said  to  the  attendant  who  led  him  by  the  hand :  "Place 
me  where  I  can  feel  the  columns  by  which  the  house  is 
supported,  that  I  may  lean  against  them." 


SAMSON  S    DEATH 
By  Dore. 


Now  the  house  was  full  of  the  men  and  women;  and 
all  the  princes  of  the  Philistines  zvcvc  there;  [while  on  the 


88  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

roof  were  about  three  thousand  men  and  women,]  who 
were  looking  on  while  Samson  made  sport. 

Then  Samson  prayed  to  Jhvh  :  "O  Lord  Jhvh,  re- 
member me,  I  beseech  Thee,  and  give  me  strength  onlv 
this  once,  O  God,  that  I  may  avenge  myself  on  the  Phil- 
istines for  one  of  my  two  eyes." 

Then  Samson  grasped  the  two  middle  columns  by 
which  the  house  was  supported,  and  leaned  his  weight 
upon  them,  one  with  his  right  hand  and  the  other  with  his 
left.    And  Samson  said:  "Let  me  die  with  the  Philistines." 

Then  he  bowed  with  all  his  might,  and  the  house  fell 
on  the  princes  and  on  all  the  people  that  were  in  it ;  so  that 
those  whom  he  killed  at  his  death  were  more  than  those 
whom  he  had  killed  during  his  life.  His  brothers  and  all 
his  father's  family  came  down  and  took  him  up,  and  went 
up,  and  buried  him  between  Zorah  and  Eshtaol,  in  the 
tomb  of  his  father  Manoah.  [He  had  judged  Israel  twenty 
years.] 


1273 


SAAISON'S  ADVENTURES. 

THE    TWELVE    LABORS. 

ACCORDING  to  Dr.  Giistav  Roskoff  (he.  cif.,  pp.  22- 
.  30)  the  twelve  labors  of  Samson  are  as  follows: 

1.  He  kills  a  lion  with  his  hands.  It  is  characteristic 
of  Samson  as  well  as  of  Izdubar,  the  Babylonian  solar 
hero,  and  also  of  Heracles,  that  the  lion  is  slain  without 
the  use  of  any  weapon. 

2.  At  his  marriage  at  Timnath  he  proposes  a  riddle, 
and  incidentally  slays  thirty  Philistines  at  Ascalon. 

3.  He  catches  three  hundred  foxes  and  chases  them 
with  firebrands  through  the  fields  of  the  Philistines. 

4.  The  Philistines  burn  his  wife  and  his  father-in-law's 
whole  famil}'  which  induces  him  to  make  great  slaughter 
among  them,  whereupon  he  flees  into  the  mountains  of 
Judah  and  hides  in  the  cleft  of  the  Clifif  Etam. 

5.  Samson  is  bound  by  the  men  of  Judah  and  delivered 
to  the  Philistines  who  take  him  to  Lehi,  but  "the  ropes  on 
his  arms  became  like  flax  that  has  caught  fire." 

6.  Samson  picks  up  the  jawbone  of  an  ass  and  kills 
multitudes  of  his  enemies. 

7.  Being  overcome  with  thirst  he  prays  for  water  and 
a  spring  breaks  forth  from  the  ass's  jawbone. 


go  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

8.  When  visiting  a  woman  at  Gaza,  he  escapes  the 
ambush  of  the  Phihstines  by  rising  at  midnight  and  carry- 
ing with  him  the  two  doors  of  the  city  gate,  which  he 
plants  upon  the  hih  which  is  in  front  of  Hebron. 

9.  Now  he  became  entangled  with  Delilah.  The  treach- 
erous woman  bound  him  with  seven  new  bowstrings,  but 
when  the  Philistines  came  upon  him  "he  snapped  the  bow- 
strings as  a  strand  of  tow  snaps  at  the  breath  of  fire." 

10.  Thereupon  Delilah  bound  him  with  seven  new 
ropes,  but  he  "snapped  the  ropes  ofif  from  his  arms  like 
thread." 

11.  Delilah  weaves  the  seven  braids  of  his  hair  into 
the  web  of  her  loom,  but  he  pulled  up  the  loom  with  the 
web  and  escaped  the  third  time. 

12.  Finally  Samson  betrays  the  secret  of  his  strength, 
and  Delilah  had  the  seven  braids  of  his  hair  shaved;  he 
was  taken  prisoner  and  blinded.  But  when  his  hair  had 
grown  again  his  strength  returned  and  enabled  him  to 
break  down  the  two  pillars  of  the  Dagon  temple  by  which 
deed  he  buried  himself  with  multitudes  of  his  enemies 
under  the  ruins  of  the  edifice. 

We  do  not  lay  much  stress  upon  this  division  of  Sam- 
son's career  into  twelve  adventures  which  would  make 
their  number  agree  with  the  twelve  labors  of  Heracles 
and  the  twelve  months  of  the  year,  but  it  is  remarkable 
enough  that  this  proposition  is  made  by  Roskoff  who  is 
so  conservative  as  to  be  the  main  authority  for  the  histo- 
ricity of  the  Samson  story. 

THE  LION  AND  THE  BEE. 

Some  features  of  Samson's  adventures  are  noteworthy. 
The  lion  symbolizes  the  heat  of  the  sun  and  is  but  another 
symbol  of  the  sun-god  himself,  but  the  mollification  of  the 
solar  heat  is  attributed  to  the  sun-god,  and  so  he  is  cele- 
brated as  the  slayer  of  the  lion. 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


91 


The  riddle  concerning-  the  honey  in  the  carcass  of  the 
Hon  has  proved  a  puzzle  to  all  who  still  believe  in  literal 
inspiration.  Bees  will  never  make  their  habitation  in  dead 
animals  and  the  form  of  the  riddle  indicates  that  the  text 
has  been  greatly  corrupted.  The  riddle  is  not  a  question 
but  a  statement — a  positive  proposition.     It  reads: 

"Out  of  the  cater  comes  something  to  cat ; 
And  out  of  the  sour^  one  comes  something:  sweet." 


And  the  answer  is  stated  in  the  form  of  a  question, 


thus 


MITHRAIC   PLAOUE.- 


"What  is  sweeter  than  honey,  and 
What  is  more  sour^  than  a  hon  ?"' 

It  can  only  be  regarded  as  a  solution  by  doing  violence 
to  the  meaning.  The  connection  between  the  bee  and  the 
lion  must  have  been  known  to  the  audience  to  whom  the 
riddle  was  proposed,  and  so  the  very  impossibility  of  the 
fact  as  a  real  event  of  life  must  have  added  to  the  interest 
of  the  solution. 

There  is  an  ancient  Mithraic  plaque  representing  a 
lion  with  a  bee  in  his  mouth  and  the  simple  explanation 
of  it  may  be  nothing  more  nor  less  than  that  the  bees  pro- 

^  "Sour"  or  "strong." 

^The  obverse  of  the  medal  shows  Mithra  between  Castor  and  Pollux; 
above  his  head  the  raven  and  other  Mithraic  symbols.  Underneath,  the  altar 
with  the  sacramental  bread,  the  cup  of  the  eucharist,  the  iish,  the  dove.  etc. 
The  reverse  shows  in  the  center  a  lion  with  a  bee  in  his  mouth.  He  is  sur- 
rounded by  seven  stars  with  illegible  inscriptions. 


92  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

duce  honey  in  the  lion,  i.  e.,  the  month  when  the  sun  stands 
in  the  sign  of  Leo.  Thus  it  would  be  quite  plausible  for 
an  ancient  riddle  to  propound  the  paradox,  "When  or 
where  can  honey  be  found  in  a  lion?"  And  the  answer, 
alluding  to  the  deed  of  the  sun-god,  would  be:  "In  the 
month  of  the  slain  lion."  Accordingly  the  strange  thing 
comes  to  pass  that 

"Out  of  the  eater  comes  something  to  eat ; 
And  out  of  the  sour  one  comes  something  sweet." 

That  the  original  meaning  of  the  riddle  has  been  ob- 
literated in  the  Samson  story  is  but  natural  when  we  con- 
sider the  redactor's  tendency  to  cut  out  mythological  ref- 
erences. 


THE  FOXES   WITH   FIREBRANDS. 

The  story  of  the  three  hundred  foxes  appears  in  its 
true  light  when  we  consider  it  as  a  parallel  to  the  Roman 
custom  of  chasing  foxes  with  firebrands  through  the  circus 
on  the  festival  of  Ceres,  an  ancient  patrician  ceremony 
which,  however,  was  so  popular  that  it  had  been  customary 
for  the  plebeians  to  take  part  in  it  as  guests.  On  the  main 
day  (according  to  Preller,  April  19)  small  gifts  were 
thrown  among  the  crowds,  usually  eatables,  among  which 
nuts  are  specially  mentioned.  There  were  no  horse  races, 
but  red  foxes  with  firebrands  tied  to  their  tails  were  chased 
through  the  arena.  It  is  understood  that  they  signified 
the  cereal  disease  of  robigo,  for  the  word  means  "red  fox," 
as  well  as  the  red  blight  of  wheat. 

Ovid  (Fcsfi  IV,  679  f.)  tells  the  story  of  a  peasant  of 
Carseoli  wdiich  is  intended  to  explain  the  origin  of  the 
custom.  A  rustic  couple  had  a  son  of  about  twelve  years 
who  caught  a  fox  that  had  frequently  stolen  hens.  The 
boy  wrapped  him  in  straw  and  hay  and  set  fire  to  it.    The 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES.  93 

fox  managed  to  escape  and  retreated  into  the  wheat  fields, 
igniting  the  whole  harvest.  Thereupon  a  law  was  passed 
that  every  captured  fox  should  be  killed  and  the  foxes  were 
punished  in  the  Cerealia  as  above  mentioned.^ 

We  cannot  doubt  that  this  coincidence  between  Sam- 
son's foxes  with  fire-brands  and  their  Roman  counterparts 
is  not  accidental,  but  both  are  distant  echoes  of  a  most 
primitive  notion  which  in  other  parts  of  the  world  has 
been  lost. 

SEMELE   AND    DIDO. 

It  is  not  uncommon  in  ancient  mythology  for  brides  of 
solar  heroes  to  be  burned  in  fire;  so  Semele,  illustrated  p. 
ii6,  dies  in  the  aw^ful  presence  of  Zeus.  And  if  Samson's 
wife  is  burned  together  wdth  her  father's  family,  it  is  quite 
in  keeping  with  the  general  character  of  our  myth  how- 
ever improbable  it  might  be  in  a  historical  story. 

We  have  repeatedly  mentioned  /Eneas  as  one  of  the 
solar  heroes,  and  will  say  that  evidence  of  his  character 
is  found  not  only  in  the  fact  that  he  is  the  son  of  Venus, 
nor  in  his  migration  over  the  whole  world,  nor  alone  in 
his  descent  into  Orcus,  the  realm  of  the  dead,  but  also  in 
that  particular  incident  of  having  a  bride  who  dies  in  the 
fire  as  a  holocaust.  When  ^neas  comes  to  Carthage  he 
falls  in  love  with  Dido,  but  at  a  divine  command  he  leaves 
her,  which  causes  her  in  her  despair  to  commit  suicide, 
and  burn  herself  on  the  pyre  as  a  victim  of  her  love. 

Virgil's  version  of  the  death  of  Dido  is  a  comparatively 
late  modification  of  an  older  legend,  alluded  to  by  the  his- 
torian Tim?eus  and  by  Justinus,^  according  to  which  Dido 

'  For  detailed  references  and  further  information  of  kindred  practices 
especially  the  worship  of  Robigo  in  the  grove  of  Robigo,  also  the  Boeotian 
story  of  the  dog  Kephalos  and  the  Teiimessian  fox.  and  the  Roman  custom 
of  sacrificing  young  dogs  of  red  color  at  the  time  of  the  dog-star  on  the  road 
to  Nomentum,  see  L.  Preller's  Romischc  Mxthologic,  3rd  edition  bv  H.  Jor- 
dan, Berlin,  1883,  Vol.  II,  pp.  43  flf.  " 

^  pyag,m.  Hist.  Gr.,  ed.  Mueller,  I,  197;  and  Justinus  XVIII,  6.  Compare 
W.  R.  Smith's  Religion  of  the  Sonites,  (London,  1901),  p.  374. 


94 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


DIDO    ON    THE    PYRE. 

By  Ferd.  Keller. 


60M 


Samson's  adventures.  95 

sacrifices  herself  for  her  husljand  Sicharbas.  Prof.  G. 
Hofifmann  (in  his  PJwciiicisclic  IuscJiriffcn,p.  ^2i.)  points 
out  that  she  is  the  g'oddess  Tanith,  the  consort  of  Baal, 
and  the  word  Sicharbas  is  the  Phoenician  Sicliar  baal.  The 
word  Sicliar  corresponds  to  the  Hebrew  dzcchcr  which 
means  "commemoration." 

There  is  a  whole  class  of  legends  on  solar  l)rides  of 
which  the  story  of  Semiramis  it  typical.  Like  all  these 
fantastic  traditions,  it  is  a  myth  that  has  been  localized 
and  by  being  transferred  to  an  historical  person  changed 
into  saga.  The  original  form  of  the  myth  is  still  preserved 
in  the  tales  of  the  death  of  Astarte  at  Aphaca  and  the 
suicide  of  Aphrodite,  who  after  the  death  of  Adonis  threw 
herself  down  from  the  Leucadian  promontory.^ 

SAMSON  IN  HIDING. 

Steinthal  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Apollo  after 
having  slain  the  dragon  seeks  refuge  in  flight,  and  Indra 
does  the  same  after  he  has  slain  the  monster  Vritra.  He 
also  maintains  that  El,  the  highest  Semitic  God,  must  hide, 
and  in  the  Samson  legend  we  read  that  the  hero  in  spite 
of  his  great  victory  over  the  Philistines  flies  and  hides  in 
the  cleft  at  Etam  (Chap.  xv.  8).  Steinthal  regards  this 
motif  as  a  common  trait  of  solar  legends  and  explains 
it  as  due  to  the  observation  that  after  a  storm  which  ap- 
pears to  be  like  a  struggle  between  two  powers  of  nature, 
a  calm  sets  in,  and  this  calm  is  interpreted  to  mean  that 
the  hero  after  his  victory,  retires  and  hides  in  some  cleft 
or  cave. 

Steinthal's  explanation  does  not  appeal  to  us.  Like 
some  other  theories  of  his  it  is  far-fetched,  and  even  if 
he  were  right,  we  think  that  in  the  Samson  legend  his 

'^  Is.' 

'  Ptol.  'Nov.  Hist.,  VII.  p.  198.  Cf.  \V.  R.  Smith"?  Religion  of  the  Sem- 
ites, p.  375. 


96  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

hiding  is  not,  as  Steinthal  claims,  without  sufficient  motive. 
The  Phihstines  were  the  masters  of  the  country,  and  it 
was  but  the  duty  of  the  authorities  to  search  for  the  bold 
murderer  who,  without  sufficient  provocation,  had  slain 
thirty  men  at  Ascalon  and  still  continued  by  indiscriminate 
slaughter  to  make  the  highways  unsafe.  The  fact,  how- 
ever, remains  that  Samson  hides — an  event  which  is  not 
uncommon  in  the  career  of  solar  heroes. 

We  must  assume  that  when  the  Samson  story  reached 
its  final  form,  the  solar  character  of  the  hero  had  already 
been  lost  sight  of,  and  so  we  can  not  expect  that  the  details 
of  Samson's  adventures  should  be  parallel  to  definite  phe- 
nomena in  the  sun's  course.  But  if  we  seek  for  an  explana- 
tion of  Samson's  hiding,  we  would  suggest  that  the  sun 
hides  behind  the  clouds,  and  the  event  takes  place  after  an 
unusual  heat,  which  means  that  the  sun-god  has  emptied 
his  quiver  of  arrows  against  his  enemies.  We  note  further 
that  the  hidden  sun-god  is  supposed  to  be  vanquished  by 
his  pursuers,  but  he  bursts  out  on  them  with  unexpected 
ferocity  in  a  thunderstorm,  and  it  is  peculiar  that  in  this 
special  instance  the  sun-god  is  identified  with  the  god  of 
thunderstorms,  a  peculiarity  which  is  most  assuredly  veri- 
fied in  the  Samson  legend,  for  when  Samson  is  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Philistines,  he  picks  up  the  jaw-bone  of 
an  ass  and  slays  a  thousand  of  his  foes. 

THE  JAW-BONE  OF  AN  ASS. 

The  story  of  the  jaw-bone  of  the  ass  has  been  localized, 
and  it  appears  that  a  certain  rock  formation  has  been 
called  Rainath-Lehi,  i.  e.,  "The  Hill  of  the  Jaw-Bone." 
The  Hebrew  narrator  changes  it  to  Ramah  Lclii  which 
means  "he  threw  away  the  jaw-bone,"  saying  that  here 
Samson  dropped  his  weapon. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  name  "ass's  jaw-bone"  in 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


97 


Greek  (i.  e.,  Oiiugiiathos^)  is  given  to  a  promontory  at 
the  southern  end  of  Laconia  as  Strabo  informs  us,  (VIII, 
5'  I'  P-  353)'  ^^^  we  may  assume  that  here,  too,  the  name 
refers  to  the  deed  of  some  ancient  hero  now  forgotten. 
Jaw-bones,  and  especially  the  jaw-bones  of  asses  (for 


i5:^ 


PERSEUS    WITH    MEDUSA'S    HEAD. 


horses  were  not  yet  domesticated)  were  used  in  the  paleo- 
lithic ages  as  weapons,  and  their  form  seems  to  have  been 
retained  for  a  while  in  the  age  of  bronze,  before  the  inven- 
tion of  the  sword;  for  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  so- 
called  "sickle-sword"  of    the  ancient  dragon-killers    Bel 


ovovyi^aOos. 


98 


THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 


Merodach    and    Perseus    is    but    the    primitive    jaw-bone 
weapon  made  of  bronze. 

In  the  ancient  bas-rehefs  Bel  Merodach  makes  his  on- 
slaught on  Tiamat  with  thunderbolts,  while  a  falchion 
(from  the  Latin  falx  i.  e.  sickle)  dangles  down  on  his  back. 


BEL  MERODACH   FIGHTING  TIAMAT  WITH   SICKLE  SWORD. 


BEL    MERODACH    FIGHTING    TIAMAT    WITH    THUNDERBOLTS.       '^''"' 

In  Table  IV  of  the  Creation  story  this  falchion  or  sickle 
sword  is  expressly  mentioned  in  lines  35  ff.  where  the 
armament  of  the  god  is  described.  The  passage  in  ques- 
tion reads  as  follows:* 


*  Compare  the  author's  article  "The  Fairy  Tale  Element  in  the  Bible," 
The  Monist,  XI,  405,  500. 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


99 


"He  made  ready  a  bow, 
Prepared  it  for  a  weapon, 
He  armed  himself  with  a  falchion, 
Attaching-  it  [to  his  beU ]  ; 
He  took  the  god- weapon,'* 
His  right  hand  seizing  it. 
Bow  and  quiver. 
He  hung  at  his  side. 
He  caused  a  hghtning-flash 
To  precede  him, 
Whose  interior  he  filled 
With  shooting  flames." 


KRONOS  WITH  A  SICKLE-SWORD.        SILVANUS   WITH   SICKLE.         5.-52G 

When  speaking  of  sickle-swords  we  must  consider  that 
the  ancient  sickle  was  shaped  exactly  like  a  jaw-bone  as 
may  be  seen  for  instance  in  the  ancient  representations  of 
Silvanus  whose  common  symbols  are  a  sickle  and  a  cypress 
branch.  Later  on  both  sickles  and  sickle-swords  are  re- 
placed by  instruments  bearing  the  shape  of  a  modern 
sickle. 


Presumably  lightning. 


100 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


Kronos,  the  most  ancient  among  the  gods,  is  also  rep- 
resented with  a  sickle-sword  in  his  hand,  and  in  the  more 


:-3£«9K2 


WATER   FLOWING   FROM   THE   JAW-BONE. 
By  Guido  Reni. 


archaic  statues  this  sickle-sword,  too,  bears  a  strong  re- 
semblance to  the  ass's  jaw-bone.     If  these  data  can  be 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES.  lOI 

relied  upon,  we  may  fairly  well  assume  that  among  some 
of  the  primitive  folks,  the  sun-god's  weapon  was  an  ass's 
jaw-bone  which  accordingly  would  have  to  be  identified 
with  the  thunderbolt. 

Our  explanation  is  further  verified  by  one  significant 
detail  of  the  story  which  associates  the  jaw-bone  closely 
with  gushing  waters.  If  the  jaw-bone  is  the  thunderbolt, 
we  must  expect  that  after  its  use  there  will  be  rain,  and 
Guido  Reni  with  his  fine  artistic  sentiment  still  feels  this 
interpretation  when  in  his  picture  of  Samson  quenching 
his  thirst  from  the  drink  that  came  from  the  jaw-bone  he 
represents  the  water  as  rushing  down  from  above,  the  hero 
holding  the  jaw-bone  high  above  his  head. 

The  Biblical  story  tells  us  of  a  fervid  prayer  of  Samson 
which,  being  poetical  in  its  wording,  may  be  a  quotation 
from  an  older  version.  But  we  may  well  assume  that  ac- 
cording to  the  ancient  interpretation  it  must  be  regarded 
not  in  our  modern  sense  of  an  orison  but  as  a  magic  spell. 

When  the  legend  was  localized,  a  spring  in  the  hollow 
place  of  the  Rock  of  the  Jaw-bone  was  pointed  out  as  the 
water  which  had  come  forth  in  answer  to  the  pcayer  of 
the  exhausted  hero. 

Diodorus  Siculus  (IV,  22)  tells  us  that  when  Heracles 
wandered  from  Pelorias  to  Eryx,  the  nymphs  on  the  road 
made  the  warm  springs  Himerea  and  Egestaea  gush  forth 
for  his  refreshment. 

Before  wt  proceed  we  will  mention  that  Samson's 
shout  of  triumph  concerning  his  successful  slaughter  con- 
tains a  pun  which  renders  the  original  almost  untrans- 
latable. The  word  khainor  means  both  "ass"  and  "heap," 
and  he  exclaims  at  the  height  of  his  triumph: 


I02  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

"With  the  jaw-bone  of  the  khainor  (ass) 
A  khamor  (heap),  two  kliauiors  (heaps) 
With  the  jaw-bone  of  the    khamor  (ass) 
I  slew  a  thousand  men," 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  translators  have  tried  to 
reproduce  the  pun.  A  German  scholar,  E,  Meier,  trans- 
lates as  follows: 

"Mit  dem  Backen  des  Packeseh 
Ein  Pack,  zwei  Pack, 
Mit  dem  Backen  des  Pac^esels 
Erschlug"  ich  tausend  Mann." 

Professor  G.  F.  Moore  in  the  translation  in  the  Poly- 
chrome  Bible,  translates  the  same  passage  very  ingeni- 
ously as  follows : 

"With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass 
I  a^^yailed  my  a^.yailants,° 
With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass 
Have  I  slain  a  thousand  men." 

The  well  is  called  rn  Jiaqqorc,^  the  "spring  of  the  crier," 
which  latter  means  "partridge"  and  is  also  an  epithet  of 
the  ass.  His  formidable  braying  is  considered  prophetic 
in  folklore  traditions,  and  this  belief  is  extended  to  the 
neighing  of  the  horse,  an  animal  which  supplants  the  ass 
though  it  does  not  appear  in  the  history  of  the  Orient  until 
later.  We  remember  that  according  to  Herodotus,  Darius 
was  created  king  on  account  of  the  neighing  of  his  horse. 
In  Bible  folklore,  Balaam's  she-ass  was  endowed  with 
the  gift  of  prophecy  and  there  are  scattered  traditions 
still  extant  which  prove  that  Yahveh  as  well  as  the  war 
god  Seth  of  the  Semitic  invaders  in  lower  Egypt  w^as  ass- 
headed. 

'  The  first  and  second  lines  would  be  more  literal  as  follows : 
"With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass 
I'm  ma.y.ying  them  in  masses." 
6Nl']?n    The   word   is  also  transliterated  hakkorc;   but  the  k-sound  is 

sharp  and  is  commonly  transcribed  q. 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


lO- 


A  remarkable  scrawl  on  the  walls  of  the  ancient  Cae- 
sarian palace  on  Mount  Palatine  has  been  discovered  which 
represents  an  ass-headed  deity  on  the  cross,  commonly  as- 


DONKEY-HEADED  GOD  ON  THE  CROSS. 
Commonly  called  "Spottcrucifix." 


sumed  to  be  drawn  in  ridicule  of  the  slave  Alexamenos 
whose  inscription  it  bears ;  hence  the  name  "Spottcrucifix" 
from  the  German  spotten,  "to  scoff."     However,  in  con- 


I04 


THE   STORY    OF   SAMSON. 


nection  with  leaden  tablets  containing-  incantations  and 
curses  which  show  similar  pictures  of  ass-headed  deities, 
it  has  become  probable  that  the  "Spottcrucifix"  was  seri- 
ously meant  and  represents  the  faith  of  the  pagan-Chris- 
tian sect  of  Sethites.  Tacitus  (Hist.  V,  4)  informs  us 
that  the  Jews  worshiped  the  ass,  and  Epiphanius  quotes 
the  genealogy  of  Mary  in  which  the  God  of  the  Jews  is 
spoken  of  as  ass-headed,  not  in  derision,  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact. 

Prof.  W.  Robertson  Smith  makes  the  following  com- 
ments on  the  ass  as  a  sacrificial  animal  among  the  Sem- 
ites :'^ 


449 


SETH. 


SETH    AND    ANUBIS. 


"The  wild  ass  was  eaten  by  the  Arabs,  and  must  have 
been  eaten  with  a  religious  intention,  since  its  flesh  was  for- 
bidden to  his  converts  by  Simeon  the  Stylite.  Conversely, 
among  the  Harranians  the  ass  was  forbidden  food,  like  the 
swine  and  the  dog;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that,  like  these 
animals,  it  was- sacrificed  or  eaten  in  exceptional  mysteries. 
Yet  when  we  find  one  section  of  Semites  forbidden  to  eat 
the  ass,  while  another  section  eats  it  in  a  way  which  to 
Christians  appears  idolatrous,  the  presumption  that  the 
animal  was  anciently  sacred  becomes  very  strong.  An 
actual  ass-sacrifice  appears  in  Egypt  in  the  worship  of 
Typhon  (Set  or  Sutech),  who  was  the  chief  god  of  the 

'  The  Religion  of  the  Semites,  (1901),  p.  468. 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


105 


Semites  in  Egypt,  though  Egyptologists  doubt  whether 
he  was  originahy  a  Semitic  god.  The  ass  was  a  Typhonic 
animal  and  in  certain  reHgious  ceremonies  the  people  of 
Coptus  sacrificed  asses  by  casting  them  down  a  precipice, 
while  those  of  Lycopolis,  in  two  of  their  annual  feasts, 
stamped  the  figure  of  a  bound  ass  on  their  sacrificial 
cakes  (Plut.,  Is.  ct  Os.  §  30)." 

"The   old   clan-name   Hamor    ("he-ass")    among   the 
Canaanites  in  Shechem,  seems  to  confirm  the  view  that  the 


DIONYSUS   ON   THE   ASS. 
Antique  terra  cotta  of  Attica. 


2709 


ass  was  sacred  with  some  of  the  Semites;  and  the  fables 
of  ass- worship  among  the  Jews  (on  which  compare  Bo- 
chart,  Hierosoicon,  I.  ii.  18)  probably  took  their  rise,  like 
so  many  other  false  statements  of  a  similar  kind  in  a  con- 
fusion between  the  Jews  and  their  heathen  neighbors." 

The  ass  was  sacred  to  Dionysus  who  is  represented 
in  many  antique  pictures  and  has  reliefs  as  coming  to  man- 
kind surrounded  by  his  merry  followers  riding  on  a  donkey. 


I06  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

The  same  trait  is  also,  and  not  without  special  emphasis, 
told  of  Christ's  triumphal  entrance  into  Jerusalem. 

In  the  Christian  church  of  Southern  France  in  medi- 
aeval times  the  ass  was  treated  with  particular  regard  and 
a  special  mass  was  celehrated  in  his  honor.     Instead  of 


CHRIST  S   ENTRY    INTO   JERUSALEM.  '*^*" 

saying  Amen  the  congregation  brayed  the  responses,  and 

at  the  end  a  hymn  was  sung  which  begins  with  the  words : 

"Orientis  partibns 

Adventavit  Asiniis."® 

'  For  details   see  the  author's   article   on   "Anubis,   Seth,  and   Christ,  the 
Significance  of  the  Spottcrucifix,"  The  Open  Court,  XV,  65  ff. 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


107 


There  are  many  ancient  scrawls  extant  in  which  a 
donkey-headed  deity  is  represented.  The  ass  or  the  crier 
was  (according  to  Pkitarch)  sacred  to  Seth  on  account 
of  the  reddish  color  which  is  common   in  the  Oriental 


species. 


THE  GATES  OF  GAZA. 


It  is  an  ancient  Babylonian  notion  that  the  sun-god 
enters  the  inhabited  world  in  the  morning  through  two 


THE    GATES    OF    HEAVEN    OPENED   TO   SHAMASH. 


n. 


^f^ 


■^ 


■  V- 


THE  BABYLONIAN  PROTOTYPE  OF  THE  PILLARS  OF  HERACLES.   ''"^' 

pillars  which  accordingly  are  erected  in  every  Semitic 
temple.  Even  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  the  two  brazen 
pillars  were  never  missing,  although  their  meaning  had 
in  later  times  been  entirely  lost  sight  of.  To  Phoenician 
sailors  it  was  quite  natural  that  the  two  rocks  at  the  strait 


I08  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

of  Gibraltar  should  be  considered  as  the  two  pillars  of 
Melkarth  through  which  the  sun  was  supposed  to  pass 
on  his  descent  into  the  underworld.  It  is  again  Diodorus 
who  tells  us  (IV,  3)  that  Heracles  put  up  the  two  moun- 
tains at  the  end  of  the  Mediterranean  which  have,  accord- 
ingly, been  called  after  him  the  'Tillars  of  Hercules," 
down  to  Tarik's  time,^  and  should  the  question  arise,  How 
is  it  possible  that  the  two  pillars  in  the  east  are  found 
also  in  the  west,  or  that  the  pillars  in  the  west  should 
also  be  found  in  the  east,  the  answer  suggests  itself  that  in 
the  night  the  sun-god  had  carried  them  from  one  place 
to  the  other.  In  this  way  Samson's  peculiarly  unpractical 
joke  finds  a  natural  explanation,  if  regarded  as  a  mythical 
event. 

THE  WEB  OF  DELILAH. 

The  accounts  that  Samson  was  bound  and  that  he  freed 
himself  as  if  by  the  heat  of  fire  are  easily  explained  as  in- 
cidents of  a  solar  myth.  Nature  is  ice-bound  in  winter, 
but  with  the  awakening  of  spring  the  fetters  melt  away. 
The  bmding  is  repeated,  for  during  the  fall  months  the 
inroads  of  winter  become  more  and  more  serious.  The 
hero  frees  himself  three  times  before  he  is  permanently 
fettered. 

When  Delilah  tried  to  bind  her  lover,  Samson  said  to 
her:  "If  thou  shouldst  weave  the  seven  braids  of  my  hair 
into  the  web  and  beat  it  up  with  the  pin  my  strength 
would  leave  me."  And  she  applied  this  method,  but  Sam- 
son "pulled  up  the  loom  with  the  web" — and  we  may  add 
that  Delilah's  web  was  torn  and  flew  all  over  the  fields. 
If  we  remember  that  Delilah  (like  Samson)  is  a  mythical 
figure  and  that  the  threads  of  her  loom  are  to  be  woven 
into  the  rays  of  the  sun,  we  shall  at  once  find  the  proper 
explanation  of  the  web  which  can  be  nothing  else  than  the 

'  The  present  name  Gehr  al  Tarik,  or  Gibraltar,  means  "Rock  of  Tarik." 


SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


Til 


gossamer  of  autumn.  Gossamer  is  also  called  Mary's  yarn, 
and  though  the  original  meaning  of  the  word  is  lost,  we 
still  know,  that  it  has  something  to  do  with  the  web  of  some 
pagan  goddess,  or  fairy.  When  the  gossamer  flies  over 
the  field  we  know  that  winter  is  near.  It  is  the  last  snare 
that  the  sun-god  has  broken  and  torn  to  tatters.  The 
enchantress  will  now  shear  his  locks  and  then  his  strength 


will  be  gone. 


SAMSON'S  SEVEN  BRAIDS. 


Nothino-  can   be  more   sue^eestive  of   Samson's   solar 


fet>' 


character  than  the  loss  of  his  strength.     The  hair  of  the 


SUN-C.Ol)   WITH    SEN'EN-RAYED   HALO. 
Mithraic  jMonument  and  Etruscan  Wall-Painting. 

sun-god  is  commonly  interpreted  to  be  the  rays  of  light 
that  surround  the  sun,  and  Apollo  is  called  by  Homer  (II, 
XX,  39)  "he  of  unshorn  hair,"  which  translated  into 
Hebrew  would  mean  the  Nazir.  Samson's  hair  is  put  up 
in  seven  braids  in  the  style  of  the  sun-god  who  in  one  of 
the  IMithraic  monuments  (reproduced  by  Cumont,  Textes 
ct  Momimcnts,  p.  202)  is  represented  with  seven  rays, 
characterizing  the  mysterious  power  of  the  seven  planet- 
ary gods.     The  loss  of  Samson's  strength  is  due  to  the 


^9o  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

fact  that  he  is  deprived  of  his  hair.  The  name  of  the 
traitress  Dehlah  is  symboHcal  and  means  "the  weakening 
or  debihtating  one."  Finally  Samson  is  blinded,  (the  sun 
loses  his  light),  and  when  he  dies  he  stands  between  the 
two  pillars  of  sunset,  at  Gaza,  the  most  western  city  in 
Danite  geography. 

THE  ONE-EYED  ONE. 

We  know  that  the  German  god  Wodan  had  one  eye 
only,  because  there  is  only  one  sun  in  the  heavens,  and  we 
are  told  in  Teutonic  mythology  that  Wodan  had  pawned 
his  other  eye  to  Mimer,  the  god  of  water.  The  second 
eye  of  Wodan  is  the  reflection  of  the  sun  in  the  ocean. 
In  consideration  of  the  fact  that  the  sun  is  the  one-eyed 
god,  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  dying  Samson  exclaims: 
"I  will  avenge  myself  on  the  Philistines  for  one  of  my 
two  eyes."  The  authorized  version  ignores  this  feature 
and  translates  "for  my  two  eyes,"  and  the  current  inter- 
pretation of  Hebrew  scholars  (as  stated  by  Professor 
Moore  in  the  Polychrome  Bible)  is  the  idea  that  "the  de- 
struction of  all  these  Philistines  could  be  but  a  partial 
retaliation"  which,  if  this  interpretation  were  admissible, 
would  only  add  to  the  unsatisfactory  character  of  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Samson  story.  We  believe  that  the  original 
story  knew  a  reason  why  Samson  was  one-eyed  and  the 
last  prayer  of  Samson,  which  is  a  piece  of  poetry,  must  be 
regarded  as  a  quotation  from  an  ancient  epic  representing 
a  more  primitive  tradition.  Samson's  prayer  reads  as 
follows : 


"Adonai  Yahveh 

mn^  ^:'n>? 

Remember  me 

i<v  ^m 

And  strengthen  me. 

x^  ^^jm 

Yea !  once  more  now ; 

n;Tn  arsn  -^n 

Elohim  ! 

°'Ti''-'.^:n 

SAMSON  S  ADVENTURES. 


Ill 


And  I  wreak  vengeance  ~Dp^  '"'Pi?!*?! 
For  one  of  my  two  eyes  "^5?  T.*^'^  r'QX 
On  the  Philistines."  JC'^'fr?^ 
The   poetical    fervor    of    this  passage,    especially   the 
rhyme,  Zakrcni  na  vc  liazqcni  na,  so  rare  in  Hebrew  lit- 
erature,  has   liecn   most   happily  imitated  by   E.   Meyer, 
whose  version  runs  thus: 


SAMSON  S   DEATH. 
By  Schnorr  von  Karolsfeld. 


'O  merke  mich  doch, 
Und  Starke  mich  doch 
Nur  diesmal  noch, 
O  dii  mein  Gott ! 
Damit  ich  nehme 
Auf  einmal  Rache 
Fiir  meine  zwei  Aiigen 
An  den  PhiHstern!" 


112  THE    STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

It  is,  however,  barely  permissible  lor  Meyer  to  trans- 
late the  word  rinx  which  means  "one,"  by  auf  cinnial  in  the 
sense  of  "all  at  once"  whereby  he  avoids  the  difficulty  of 
a  literal  rendering,  implying  that  Samson  takes  revenge 
"for  one  of  his  two  eyes." 

SAMSON'S  DEATH. 

The  death  of  Heracles  and  also  of  Melkarth  is  repre- 
sented as  a  suicide  which  is  regarded  as  a  self-sacrifice, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  Samson.  He  goes  to  death  volun- 
tarily, breaking  down  the  temple  of  Dagon  with  the  in- 
tention of  slaying  with  him  a  great  number  of  the  oppres- 
sors of  his  people.  He  knew  that  the  edifice  was  filled  with 
the  lords  of  the  Philistines,  and  it  is  expressly  stated  that 
on  the  roof  alone  there  were  three  thousand  men  and 
women.  The  tacit  implication  is  that  the  Philistines  were 
weakened  to  such  an  extent  that  although  the  Israelites 
had  not  been  freed,  the  Gentile  authorities  could  no  longer 
suppress  them  as  mightily  as  before,  and  so  it  was  fulfilled 
that  Samson  should  "begin  to  deliver  Israel  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  Philistines." 


4212 


SOLAR  MYTHS. 

MYTHICAL  TRAITS  OF  THE  SAMSON  STORY. 

ONE  reason  which  suggests  the  idea  that  in  the  Sam- 
son myth  we  are  confronted  with  a  rehc  of  some 
ancient  pagan  tradition,  is  found  in  the  obvious  and  un- 
deniable discrepancy  of  the  general  character  and  tone 
of  the  story  with  the  puritan  spirit  of  later  Judaism  that 
otherwise  prevails  in  the  Old  Testament. 

The  story  of  Samson  is  neither  refined  nor  moral,  so 
that  even  orthodox  people  will  have  to  confess  that  it  is 
out  of  harmony  with  the  general  tenor  of  Biblical  tradi- 
tions. It  is  full  of  boisterous  fun,  and  a  critical  reader 
feels  that  the  Deuteronomic  redactor  of  the  Bible  was 
obviously  too  sober  and  too  serious  to  appreciate  its  humor. 
But  the  story  appears  to  have  been  too  popular  among  the 
Israelites  to  be  overlooked  or  suppressed  by  the  priestly 
censors  who  had  to  admit  it  to  the  canon,  and  they  may 
have  suffered  it  mainly  on  account  of  the  religious  back- 
ground which,  though  tinged  with  old  superstitions,  ex- 
hibits confidence  in  the  power  of  Yahveh. 

Some  adventures  (the  story  of  the  foxes  and  the  re- 
peated slaughter  of  Philistines)  indicate  that  the  tale  origi- 
nated among  herdsmen  who  were  hostile  to  the  farmers 
of  the  country  and  also  full  of  spite  against  the  established 


114  THE   STORY    OF   SAMSON. 

authorities.  The  style,  though  vigorous  and  poetical,  is 
at  times  positively  vulgar,  and  the  puns  {Kainath  LeJii, 
haqqore,  and  khauwr)  are  poor. 

While  the  hero's  character  is  objectionable  for  more 
than  one  reason  and  can  scarcely  be  considered  religious, 
assuredly  not  moral,  the  role  of  Yahveh  in  the  story  indi- 
cates that  according  to  the  people  among  whom  the  tale 
was  current  he  was  not  a  great  and  dignified  God,  and 
still  less  the  creator  and  ruler  of  the  world;  but  a  kind 
of  demon,  or  occult  power  or  spell  that,  not  unlike  the 
genii  of  Aladdin,  obeyed  certain  magic  tricks.  Yahveh 
comes  over  Samson  in  fits  just  as  an  attack  of  frenzy 
seizes  Heracles,  or  as  a  blind  fury  takes  possession  of  the 
Northern  berserker;  and  in  this  condition  the  hero  be- 
comes miraculously  irresistible.  Wlien  Samson's  locks 
are  shorn,  Yahveh  no  longer  comes  over  him,  just  as  the 
genii  cease  to  appear  when  a  wrong  lamp  is  substituted 
for  the  magic  lamp.  The  external  and  magical  cause  of 
Yahveh's  appearance  is  so  out  of  place  in  a  book  which 
has  been  edited  by  the  priests  of  a  purified  monotheism, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  judge  the  story  from  any  other 
point  of  view  except  that  it  is  saturated  with  pagan  tra- 
ditions. 

THE  NUMBERS   SEVEN,  THIRTY,  AND  TWELVE. 

The  ancient  Hebrews  were  not  of  a  mathematical  turn 
of  mind,  and  so  the  significance  of  numbers,  so  well  under- 
stood in  Babylon,  was  little  heeded  in  Palestine.  The 
more  noteworthy  is  the  preservation  of  such  figures  as 
thirty,  the  number  of  days  in  a  month,  and  seven  the 
number  of  days  in  a  week,  which  occur  repeatedly  in 
our  narrative.  There  are  thirty  comrades  given  to  Sam- 
son at  his  wedding,  the  wager  of  the  riddle  is  for  thirty 
fine  dresses,  and  he  kills  thirty  Philistines  at  Ascalon. 


SOLAR   MYTHS. 


115 


Further    Delilah    has    Samson    bound    with    seven   bow- 
strings, and  he  wears  seven  braids  of  hair. 

That  Samson's  adventures  can  be  classed  in  a  group 
of  twelve,  as  Roskoff  has  done,  is  noteworthy  but  may 


THE    TWELVE    LABORS    OF    HERACLES, 


148 


be  accidental,  and  so  this  point  is  too  uncertain  to  be  used 


as  an  argument. 


The  number  twelve  is  of  a  general  significance  in  the 
Orient  and  occurs  in  many  similar  connections.     There 


ii6 


THE   STORY    OF   SAMSON. 


are  twelve  tribes  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  the  number 
in  the  enumerations  is  constant  although  the  names  are 
not  always  the  same.  The  tribe  of  Dan  is  sometimes  re- 
placed by  another  name.  There  are  twelve  prophets  and 
twelve  disciples  of  Christ.  The  zodiac  is  divided  into 
twelve  signs,  and  the  day  is  measured  by  twelve  double- 
hours.  The  sacredness  of  the  number  twelve  is  due,  partly 
to  its  arithmetical  advantages,  viz.,  its  divisibility  by  two, 


DEATH    TAKING   AWAY   SEMELE 

WITH    THE    THUNDERBOLT 

OF  ZEUS. 

Etruscan  glass. 


^^^ 

^ 

^v 

m 

3 

|i 

^ 

^ 

n 

3Ch   ( 

'M  ■  i 

M 

//> 

Am/ 

%l 

) 

/y 

1  /--i^Si. 

^^^^J^ 

\^ 

%v 

f  r/!#<s> — y 

fC^^ 

-^ 

-.1—?^ 

t. 'i liifitrJh  ji'  i'ij i^.i '£l,i l--.*'.  &,-! 
MELKARTH    OF   THE 
PHOENICIANS. 


HERACLES    ENTERING    THE 
DRAGON. 


three  and  four,  and  undoubtedly  also  to  the  fact  that  twelve 
is  the  number  of  months  in  the  year.  For  this  reason  the 
recurrent  events  of  the  year  have  naturally  been  conceived 
as  twelve  adventures  of  the  solar  hero.  But  the  farther 
a  story  travels  the  more  do  the  people  lose  sight  of  its  orig- 
inal significance,  and  so  the  deeds  of  Heracles  reflect  no 
longer  the  sun's  work  in   the  successive  months  of  the 


SOLAR    MYTHS. 


117 


year.  The  myth  has  changed  into  a  loosely  interconnected 
series  of  incidents  and  deeds  of  valor ;  and  the  same  is  true 
of  Samson.  Local  coloring  ( perhaps  real  events  of  actual 
men)  overgrows  the  original  myth  and  modifies  it  until  it 
loses  its  mythological  character  and  hecomes  saga  or  leg- 
end. 

THE  LION  AND  THE  DRAGON. 

Among  the  twelve  labors  of  Heracles  we  have  one, 
consisting  in  the  killing  of  a  lion,  which  is  common  to  all 


LION-KILLING  HERO   OF   KHORSABAD. 


1366 


solar  heroes  of  the  Semites;  and  it  is  certainly  not  acci- 
dental that  the  Tyrian  Melkarth  and  the  Babylonian  Izdu- 
bar  are  represented  as  tearing  a  lion  in  two  and  killing 
him  without  a  weapon,  merely  with  their  hands,  just  as 
Samson  does  in  the  Biblical  story.  In  Greece  the  lion's 
skin  is  the  typical  dress  of  Heracles, 

Northern  solar  heroes  fight  a  monster  or  a  dragon,  the 
symbol  of  swamps  and  fogs.  This  is  instanced  in  the  Beo- 
wulf legend,  in  the  Siegfried  Story,  and  in  the  fight  of 
Thor  with  the  serpent  Jormungander.    But  in  the  Samson 


ii8 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


Story  the  fight  with  a  dragon  is  missing,  which  may  be 
regarded  as  an  evidence  of  its  ancient  date.  It  is  an  indi- 
cation that  the  Bibhcal  tale  is  purely  Semitic  and  unin- 
fluenced by  Aryan  thought. 

The  Greek  Heracles  may  originally  have  been  an 
Aryan  solar  hero,  a  Siegfried,  whose  character  was  modi- 
fied by  the  importation  of  Semitic  features ;  or  he  may  have 


-■■.ft  ■■ 

li,'^ 

'f-fy,  ■ 

it-- 

^ 

V''   .•:?g^ 

** 

/x- 

\ 

.>      .*,; 

-^Hr.]* 

'         1         u 

A    1 

w^ 

'  S^^^P 

4  ^ 

■ir'^ 

*       ;' 

P^ 

4  #••'' 

SIEGFRIED  AND    I  IIK  DKAtjUN, 


been  the  Semitic  solar  hero  who  became  thoroughly  Hel- 
lenized  in  Greece.  Every  one  of  these  solar  heroes  has  be- 
come a  typical  exponent  of  the  nation  to  which  he  belongs, 
and  so  Samson  remains  a  genuine  Hebrew  figure,  yet  he 
typifies  the  archaic  and  prehistoric  age,  not  the  more  civi- 
lized period  of  later  Judaism  with  its  purer  faith  and 
higher  morality. 

As  Heracles  is  (or  has  become)  a  typical  Greek  hero, 


SOLAR    MYTHS.  IIQ 

SO  the  story  of  Samson  has  been  thoroughly  locaHzed 
among-  the  IsraeHtes,  and  we  may  assume  that  it  was  ab- 
original, but  if  not,  it  must  have  been  imported  at  a  very 
early  date.  It  must  have  been  told  centuries  before  Ham- 
murabi and  thus  it  is  quite  natural  that  the  connection  of 
the  legend  with  Babylonian  myths  was  completely  for- 
gotten. 

It  is  characteristic  that  while  Heracles,  the  hero  of  a 
cosmopolitan  nation,  is  regarded  as  the  saviour  of  man- 
kind who  travels  all  over  the  inhabited  earth,  Samson  is 
the  saviour  only  of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  and  all  his  deeds  are 
accomplished  within  the  small  radius  of  the  tribe's  polit- 
ical horizon.     He  is  born  in  Zorah  and  he  dies  in  Gaza. 

HERCULES    AND    HERACLES. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  mention  that  the  Italian 
Hercules  has,  under  the  influence  of  a  similarity  of  sound, 
been  erroneously  identified  with  Heracles,  and  this  mis- 
taken identification  has  been  so  firmly  established  that  in 
all  English-speaking  countries  even  to-day,  Heracles  is 
scarcely  known  under  any  other  name  than  that  of  Her- 
cules. Yet  the  Italian  Hercules  has  little  in  common  with 
the  Greek  Heracles,  for  the  former  is  a  boundary  deity,  the 
name  being  connected  with  the  root  HARK,  still  found 
in  the  Greek  hcrkos  (ipKos)  "fence."  The  rural  character 
of  this  Italian  Hercules  bore  a  faint  resemblance  to  the 
rude  jocularity  of  the  Greek  Heracles,  a  feature  which  is 
also  quite  conspicuous  in  Samson  as  well  as  other  solar 
heroes.  Since  the  Romans  had  scarcely  any  written  folk- 
lore traditions  the  more  definite  and  therefore  stronger 
Greek  mythology  which  had  been  grafted  upon  the  ancient 
Italian  religion,  almost  obliterated  its  primitive  Italian 
traditions,  and  so  Hercules  lost  his  original  characteris- 
tics except  in  the  rural  districts,  and  was  changed  into  the 
Greek  Heracles. 


120  THE    STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

IZDUBAR  THE  HELPER. 

We  do  not  know  whether  Samson  has  ever  been  re- 
vered as  a  demigod  among  the  Israehtes,  as  a  protector 
against  enemies  and  evils  of  ah  kind.  We  can  only  say 
that  it  is  probable,  for  all  traces  of  it  except  the  narrative 
as  told  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  are  lost. 

Izdubar  (like  the  Greek  Heracles)  is  considered  as  a 
helper  in  trouble.  One  of  the  fragments  (catalogued  No. 
1 37 1  by  Smith  and  published  by  Haupt  in  his  Nimrod- 
epos,  fascicle  II,  page  93)  contains  a  prayer  to  Izdubar 
in  the  capacity  of  a  god  who  figures  as  assistant  to  the 
sun-god.  His  name  was  invoked  as  an  exorcism  in  a 
dangerous  disease.  We  read  in  this  fragment  how  the 
patient  asks  for  the  assistance  of  a  priest  to  heal  his  ail- 
ments, who  thereupon  addresses  Izdubar  the  great  judge 
"to  whose  hand  the  sun-god  has  entrusted  the  sceptre  and 
the  decision."  After  a  short  hymn  in  honor  of  ilu-Izdu- 
bar  which  exists  only  in  part,  and  a  few  comforting  words 
to  cheer  the  patient,  the  priest  addresses  Izdubar  as  fol- 
lows:^ 

"O  Izdubar,  powerful  king,  judge  of  the  earth  spirits, 
Thou  lofty  one,  great  governor  of  mankind. 
Thou   who  lookest  down  upon   the  quarters  of  the 

world. 
Thou  dispenser  of  the  earth,  and  master  of  all  things 

earthly, 
Thou  judge  who  discernest  like  unto  a  god. 
Thou  steppest  forth  upon  the  earth  and  proceedest  to 

judgment. 
Thy  jurisdiction  is  never  upset :  thy  command  is  never 


Thou  summonest,  thou  decidest,  thou  judgest,  thou 
discriminatest. 

*  Roscher's  Lex.  d.  gr.  u.  r.  Myth.,  IT,  p.  775. 


SOLAR    MYTHS. 


I2T 


The  sun-god  has  entrusted  sceptre  and  decision  to 

thy  hand, 
Kings,  princes  and  governors  bow  down  before  thee, 
Thou  watchest  upon  their  commands,  and  thou  de- 

cidest  their  decisions, 
I  am  N.  N.,  the  son  of  N.  N.,  whose  god  is  N.  N.,  and 

whose  goddess  is  N.  N., 
Disease  has  seized  me  and  I  must  do  penance, 
I  bow  before  thee  that  thou  mayest  decide  my  case, 


IZDUBAR   CONQUERING  THE   LION. 


1S8 


Proceed  to  judgment 

Remove  the  disease  [from  my]  body. 

Conquer  the  evil 

The  evil  that  in  my  body  [ravages]  .  . .  ." 
Hereupon  the  priest  addresses  the  patient  saying: 
"On  this  day  the  god  has  taken  compassion  on  thee. 
He  has  strengthened  thee  and  will  give  a  pure  iibimtu{  ?) 
[into  thy  mouth]." 

The  last  words  appear  to  refer  to  a  kind  of  sacrament 


122 


THE    STORY    OF    SAMSON. 


which  the  patient  takes  for  the  sake  of  purification  and 
recovery. 

This  fragment  proves  that  Izdubar,  the  hero,  not  unHke 
Heracles  has  been  deified  in  the  course  of  a  further  evolu- 
tion of  this  ideal  and  has  become  a  judge  and  an  assistant 
of  the  great  protector  of  justice,  the  sun-god  Shamash. 


IZDUBAR   STRANGLING  A  LION. 


42o8b 


We  can  in  this  connection  only  indicate  that  the  simi- 
larity of  Heracles  to  Izdubar  is  commonly  conceded  not 
only  in  general,  but  also  in  some  important  details. 

Izdubar  is  frequently  identified  with  Nimrod,  and  we 
can  not  doubt  that  the  Biblical  Nimrod  contains  some  fea- 
tures of  the  Izdubar  story.     Either  one  is  a  "great  hunter 


SOLAR    MYTHS.  I23 

before  the  Lord,"  and  the  l)eginning  of  Izdubar's  kingxlom, 
as  that  of  Nimrod,  is  "Babel  and  Erech  and  Akkad,  and 
Cahieh,  in  the  land  of  Shinar."'  It  is  possil)le  that  Nimrod 
is  an  appellative  of  Izdubar.  The  name  has  l^een  explained 
as  ''Bright  Light."^ 

The  name  Izdubar  recalls  the  nature  of  Mithras,  who 
in  the  later  development  of  Mazdaism  plays  approximately 
the  part  of  Christ  in  Christianity.  Mithras  means  "Splen- 
dor," and  many  mythological  features  of  Mithraistic  tradi- 
tions indicate  that  he  also  is  a  personification  of  the  sun 
and  a  deification  of  all  the  blessings  which  have  found  in 
the  sun  an  appropriate  symbolization. 

The  Izdubar  epic  as  well  as  the  Heracles  myth  treat 
the  question  of  immortality,  and  though  it  seems  that  Izdu- 
bar (at  least  so  far  as  the  twelve  tablets  go)  does  not  suc- 
ceed in  attaining  his  aim,  we  still  see  that  the  problem  of 
immortality  is  the  pivot  of  the  whole  poem.  The  Heracles 
myth  is  somewhat  further  developed  for  the  hero  sur- 
mounts all  difficulties,  and,  though  he  must  die,  he  attains 
Olympus  and  is  there  received  into  the  circle  of  the  celestial 
gods. 

THE  TWELVE  TABLETS  OF  THE  IZDUBAR  EPIC. 

Most  Assyriologists  agree  that  the  sun's  passage 
through  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac  has  furnished  the 
original  meaning  for  the  stories  told  in  the  twelve  tablets 
of  the  Izdubar  epic. 

In  an  ancient  Assyrian  document  translated  by  Pro- 
fessor Sayce  and  pu1)lished  in  the  Records  of  tJie  Past, 
(first  series,  Vol.  I,  p.  i66),  the  Assyrian  names  of  the 
months  are  enumerated  together  with  their  Akkadian 
equivalents,  w4iich,  translated  into  English,  read  as  fol- 
lows: (i)  the  sacrifice  of  righteousness  (March)  ;  (2)  the 

*Gen.  X.  10. 

'Roscher's  Lex.  d.  gr.  u.  r.  Myth.,  IT,  p.  '//i^. 


124 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


THE    ADVENTURES    OF    IZDUBAR. 
From  ancient  monuments. 


SOLAR    MYTHS. 


1-25 


propitious  bull  (April)  ;  (3)  of  brick,  and  the  twins  (May) ; 
(4)  seizer  of  seed  (June)  ;  (5)  fire  that  makes  fire  (July) ; 
(6)  the  errand  of  Lstar  (August);  (7)  the  holy  altar 
(September);  (8)  the  bull-like  founder'  (October);  (9) 
the  very  clouded  (November);  (10)  the  father  of  light 
(December);   (11)   abundance  of  rain   (January);   (12) 


THE    ADVENTURES    OF    IZDUBAR. 
From  ancient  monuments. 


sowing  of  seed  (February);  and  (13)  the  dark  [month] 
of  sowing,  the  latter  being  the  intercalary  month  that  was 
added  every  sixth  year. 

Among  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  the  first  and  sec- 
ond centuries   B.   C,   we  possess  an  astronomical   tablet 

*  This  translation  is  queried  by  Professor  Sayce. 


126  THE   STORY    OF   SAMSON. 

which  contains  the   Babylonian  Zodiac  in  the  following 
abbreviations:^ 


1.  ]^  {ku{sarikku)) 

= 

aries. 

2.  "^y  {teimennu)) 

=r 

taurus. 

3-  Hf-  +  («fl^'") 

= 

gemini. 

4-  iHK  {puiukku) 

= 

cancer. 

5-   T?   i<^ru) 

= 

leo. 

6.   ^|y^  (Jfri?) 

= 

virgo. 

7.   •^J  {zibanitu) 

= 

libra. 

8.  »♦  ^^  (^agrabu) 

= 

scorpia. 

9.  ^  (Z'^) 

= 

arcitenens. 

»o.  l,i^?  (^'t^w) 

= 

caper. 

11.  -^^  (§'«) 

= 

amphora  [aquarius]. 

12.     /"    (2/<5) 

= 

pisces. 

In  the  first  tablet  of  the  Izdubar  epic  the  hero  begins 
his  career  as  a  king,  and  kings  are  usually  likened  to 
"bell  wethers."  They  are  called  the  rams  of  the  people^ 
(Is.  xiv.  9  and  Zach.  x.  3)  and  so  it  is  assumed  that  they 
correspond  to  Aries. 

Another  explanation  of  Aries  is  mentioned  by  Epping 
and  Strassmaier^  which  is  worth  quoting.  The  name  of 
the  first  month,  corresponding  to  the  first  sign  of  the  zo- 
diac, is  spoken  of  in  ancient  inscriptions  as  *'the  sacrifice  of 
righteousness,"  which  would  denote  Aries  to  be  a  sacri- 
ficial offering  and  might  indicate  that  just  as  the  Jews  cele- 
brated the  first  of  Nisan  by  an  atonement  for  the  entire 
people,  so  the  Babylonians  offered  on  their  New  Year's 
feast  a  ram  in  expiation  of  the  sins  of  the  nation. 

In  the  second  tablet  Eabani  appears,  who  is  represented 
as  a  bull  walking  upright,  corresponding  to  Taunts.  The 
third  tablet  relates  the  friendship  of  Izdubar  and  Eabani, 

''Epping  and  Strassmaier.  Zcltschrift  filr  Assyriologic,  Vol.  V,  Fascicle 
4,  October  1890,  page  351. 

^Q^"l.in;2  i.  e.,  "the  ready  ones,"  "the  butters." 
*  Astrononiischcs  aus  Babylon. 


SOLAR    MYTHS. 


127 


who  are  forthwith  united  hke  twins,  and  would  thus  be 
appropriate  for  the  Gemini.  We  recognize  further  in  the 
sixth  month  the  sign  of  Virgo  which  corresponds  to  the 
sixth  tablet  relating  the  hero's  adventures  with  the  god- 
dess I  star.  The  scorpion-man  mentioned  in  the  ninth  tab- 
let may  correspond  to  Sagittarius  of  the  ninth  month. 

The  eleventh  month  corresponding  to  .-Jg^anw^  is  called 
Gil  in  the  abbreviated  tal)le  of  zodiacal  names,  and  since 
we  read  in  a  stray  passage  that  "Mercury  (or  Jupiter) 
lingers  in  the  constellation  of  Gula,"  we  must  assume  that 
one  of  the  zodiacal  signs  in  which  alone  the  planets  can 
move,  must  have  been  dedicated  to  this  goddess  of  the 


IZDUBAR  AND  EABANI. 


nether  world  who  also  presided  over  the  abyss  called  fehoin 
or  Tiaiiiat,  the  deep,  or  the  waters  below.  So  it  seems  but 
a  matter  of  course  to  identify  the  eleventh  month  repre- 
senting the  eleventh  sign  of  the  zodiac  with  Gula  which 
again  is  to  be  identified  with  our  Aquarius,  who  holds  the 
corresponding  place  in  all  other  zodiacs,  either  as  a  man 
pouring  out  water,  or  simply  an  amphora.  The  adventure 
of  the  eleventh  tablet  contains  the  deluge  story,  whose 
hero  is  the  Babylonian  Noah,  Sitnapishtim,  or  as  Berosos 
calls  him,  Xisuthros. 

Sitnapishtim,  the  great  sage  whom  Izdubar  consults 


128 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


in  regard  to  the  water  of  life  and  the  miraculous  plant  of 
promise,  relates  the  wrath  of  the  gods  and  the  story  of  the 
deluge  which  represents  so  many  analogies  to  the  Biblical 
account,  and  then  directs  the  hero  to  the  land  of  no  return 
where  he  would  find  what  he  seeks.  The  Izdubar  epic 
here  reaches  the  climax  of  its  interest,  for  the  hero's 
journey  to  the  underworld  affords  a  good  opportunity  to 
set  forth  the  Babylonian  view  of  life  after  death. 

On  account  of  the  fragmentary  condition  of  the  twelve 
tablets,  it  will  be  difficult  to  say  more  on  the  subject,  but 
the  few  references  which  we  possess  are  sufficient  indi- 
cations of  a  connection  between  the  Izdubar  epic  and  the 
adventures  of  the  sun  during  the  twelve  months  of  the 


SITNAPISHTIM,  THE  BABYLONIAN    NOAH.  "°^ 

year  and  his  migration  through  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
zodiac. 


IZDUBAR   AND   IMMORTALITY. 

The  end  of  Samson  is  the  main  point  in  which  a  com- 
parison of  the  Hebrew  hero  with  Heracles  and  Izdubar 
breaks  down,  for  it  is  characteristic  of  pagan  solar  myths 
that  the  sun-god  goes  down  to  Sheol,  or  whatever  may  be 
the  name  of  the  world  of  the  dead,  and  returns  thence  to  the 
world  of  the  living.  Not  only  Heracles  descends  to  Hades, 
but  also  other  heroes  of  the  same  type,  Odysseus,  Orpheus, 
^neas,  etc.,  and  the  same  is  stated  of  Izdubar.  The  ac- 
quisition of  immortality  is  the  aim  of  both  the  Greek  and 


SOLAR    MYTHS. 


129 


the  Babylonian  heroes.  In  his  anxiety  to  find  his  dead 
friend  Eabani,  Izdubar  goes  in  search  for  the  land  of  no 
return,  and  arrives  at  the  coast,  but  the  Queen  of  the  Sea 
informs  him  that  none  but  Shamash,  the  god  of  the  sun, 
has  ever  crossed  the  ocean.  However,  Izdubar  is  persistent 
and  is  finally  permitted  to  venture  on  the  sea  in  company 
with  the  ferry-man,  Arad-Ea,  the  Babylonian  Charon,^ 
They  reach  the  Isles  of  the  Blest  and  while  remaining  in 
the  ferry  Izdubar  speaks  with  his  friend,  who  gives  him  in- 
formation concerning  the  fate  of  the  dead.  Eabani  thinks 
that  the  hero  could  not  endure  the  description,  but  he  com- 


IZDUBAR  AND  ARAD-EA. 


4213 


forts  him  with  the  thought  that  those  who  receive  proper 
funeral  rites  will  be  well  taken  care  of.  Suffering  from 
leprosy  Izdubar  seeks  the  water  of  life  and  the  plant  of 
life.  He  is  healed  from  leprosy  through  the  assistance  of 
Sitnapishtim,  and  he  finds  the  plant  which  he  calls  "as  an 
old  man  he  is  changed  into  a  youth,"  but  by  some  mishap 
he  loses  it  again. 

When  Heracles  started  out  in  search  for  the  immortal- 
ity-giving apples  of  the  Hesperides,  he  encountered  also 
the  difficulty  of  crossing  the  ocean,  and  he  succeeded  only 
because  the  sun-god  allowed  him  to  use  his  bark. 

*  The  Greeks  owe  their  ideas  concerning  the  other  world  mainly  to  the 
Egyptians,  and  so  the  names  "Charon"  and  "Elysium"  are  Egyptian.  The 
former  simply  means  "ferry-man"  and  the  latter  is  the  Egyptian  Aalu,  the 
Fields  of  the  Blest, — also  spelled  Aaru. 


130  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

Izdubar  after  death  becomes  a  god,  and  Heracles  too 
is  welcomed  in  Olympus,  but  Samson's  career  ends  with 
his  life. 

SAMSON   AND  HERACLES. 

It  is  customary  even  among  critical  minds  to  speak 
with  admiration  of  the  literary  beauty  and  grandeur  of 
the  Samson  story.  Steinthal  among  others  has  devoted 
a  number  of  pages  to  its  praise,  and  I  will  not  deny  that 
especially  the  oldest  and  most  original  passages  are  ani- 
mated by  a  truly  poetic  spirit,  but  judging  the  work  in  its 
present  form  I  can  only  regret  the  censorship  of  its  Deu- 
teronomic  editor,  for  I  believe  that  the  passages  which  he 
has  cut  out  as  mythological,  have  been  the  most  valuable, 
the  most  interesting,  and  also  the  most  religious  part  of  the 
legend.  They  are  now  lost  beyond  hope  of  recovery,  and 
so  the  hero  of  a  primitive  faith  that  was  animated  by  a  be- 
lief in  immortality,  has  become  a  mere  country  lout  and 
a  tough,  who  conscious  of  his  physical  strength  is  always 
ready  for  a  brawl,  and  we  feel  the  delight  of  the  narrator 
as  w^ell  as  his  audience  when  Samson  finds  a  pretext  to 
kill  indiscriminately  some  thirty  or  a  thousand  Philistines. 
Even  considered  from  the  standpoint  of  Israelitic  patriot- 
ism he  has  done  nothing  to  lift  his  nation  to  a  higher  plane 
or  a  nobler  conception  of  life. 

How  much  higher  ranges  the  Greek  Heracles,  who  in 
spite  of  the  primitive  crudeness  of  the  original  myth,  has 
been  idealized  by  Greek  poets  and  philosophers  into  a  pat- 
tern of  highminded  virtue! 

As  early  as  the  seventh  century  before  Christ  the  poet 
Peisander  wrote  an  apotheosis  of  Heracles,  called  the 
Heracley,  and  later  Greek  authors,  such  men  as  Xenophon 
and  Prodicus,*  regarded  him  as  an  incarnation  of  divine 
perfection.     It  was  said  of  Heracles  that  he  came  to  the 

*  Xen.,  Mem.  II,  i ;  Plato,  Symp..  p.  177  B. 


SOLAR   MYTHS.  13^ 

parting  of  the  ways  of  life  and  he  chose  the  difficult  and 
steep,  the  way  of  virtue  in  preference  to  the  broad  and  easy 


THE  FARNESE  HERACLES.  i39 

road  to  vice.   And  since  Heracles  had  become  the  ideal  of 
Greek  youth,  it  became  customary  to  look  upon  the  details 


132  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

of  the  old  myth  as  mere  perversions  of  a  deeper  reHgious 
truth,  supposed  to  be  the  original.  Epictetus  who  calls 
Heracles  a  saviour,  and  the  son  of  Zeus,  says:  "Do  you 
believe  the  fables  of  Homer?" 

Heracles  is  called  repeller  of  evil  {aXe^iHauo^),  leader 
in  the  fray  (^7tp6}.iaxo5),  the  brightly  victorious  {xaXXi- 
riHos),  the  celestial  {oXvjuTrios),  destroyer  of  flies,  vermin, 
and  grasshoppers  (jxvlapyos,  ittoktovos,  nopvoTtioov) ,  He, 
the  solar  hero,  is  identified  with  Apollo,  the  sun-god,  in  the 
names  prophet  (/Aavris),  and  leader  of  the  Muses  (piovaa- 
yeTTjG  ) . 

Seneca  speaks  of  Heracles  as  the  ideal  of  the  good 
man  who  lives  exclusively  for  the  welfare  of  mankind. 
Contrasting  him  to  Alexander  the  Great,  the  conqueror 
of  Asia,  he  says  (De  Benef.,  I,  14)  : 

"Heracles  never  gained  victories  for  himself.  He  wan- 
dered through  the  circles  of  the  earth,  not  as  a  conqueror, 
but  as  a  protector.  What,  indeed,  should  the  enemy  of  the 
wicked,  the  defensor  of  the  good,  the  peace-bringer,  con- 
quer for  himself  either  on  land  or  sea !" 

Epictetus  praises  Heracles  frequently  and  declares  that 
the  evils  which  he  combated  served  to  elicit  his  virtues, 
and  were  intended  to  try  him  (I,  6).  Zeus,  who  is  identi- 
fied with  God,  is  called  his  father  and  Heracles  is  said  to 
be  his  son  (HI,  26).  Heracles,  when  obliged  to  leave 
his  children,  knew  them  to  be  in  the  care  of  God.  Epic- 
tetus says   (HI,  24)  : 

"He  knew  that  no  man  is  an  orphan,  but  that  there  is 
a  father  always  and  constantly  for  all  of  them.  He  had 
not  only  heard  the  words  that  Zeus  was  the  father  of  men, 
for  he  regarded  him  as  Jus  father  and  called  him  such; 
and  looking  up  to  him  he  did  what  Zeus  did.  Therefore 
he  could  live  happily  everywhere." 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SUN. 

SAMSON  A  PROTOTYPE  OF  CHRIST. 

NOTHING  is  more  natural  than  that  man  should  find 
comfort  in  the  daily  reappearance  of  the  sun  as 
symholizing  a  constant  resurrection  of  life  from  death, 
and  the  same  circle  of  a  change  from  life  to  death  and 
from  death  back  again  to  life  is  repeated  in  the  seasons 
of  the  year.  As  the  vegetation  on  earth  blooms  in  summer 
and  withers  in  winter,  only  to  be  revived  by  the  invigor- 
ating sun  of  spring,  so  man  hopes  for  his  resurrection 
from  the  grave,  and  a  continued  life  after  death. 

The  most  impressive  feature  of  all  the  solar  myths  is 
the  death  and  resurrection  of  the  sun-god,  and  it  seems 
probable  that  this  episode  of  the  story  had  its  ultimate 
origin  not  in  the  south,  but  in  the  north  where  the  sun 
actually  disappears  and  is  born  again.  The  phenomenon 
of  the  winter  solstice  has  lead  to  the  celebration  of  the 
Yule  Tide  as  the  nativity  of  the  new  sun,  a  feast  which 
was  celebrated  among  the  Persians  in  honor  of  Mithras, 
the  virgin-born  mediator  between  Ahura  Mazda  (i.  e.. 
Lord  Omniscient)  and  mankind;  and  the  festival  of  the 
nativity  of  Mithras  was  again  changed  in  Christian  times 
into  Christmas,  because,  as  says  St.  Chrysostom  (Horn. 
31),  "On  this  day  [the  birthday  of  Mithras],  also  the 
birthday  of  Christ  was  lately  fixed  at  Rome  in  order  that 


134 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 


whilst  the  heathen  were  busied  with  their  profane  cere- 
monies, the  Christians  might  perform  their  holy  rites  un- 
disturbed." Even  in  the  days  of  Pope  Leo  the  Great,  in 
the  fifth  century,  it  was  not  yet  forgotten  that  the  winter 
solstice  was  the  birth  festival  of  the  sun,  for  the  Pope  says 
that  there  are  "some  to  whom  this  day  of  our  celebration 
is  worthy  of  honor  not  so  much  on  account  of  the  birth 
of  Christ  as  for  the  sake  of  the  renewal  of  the  sun." 

The  Samson  story  breaks  ofif  very  abruptly  and  leaves 
a  very  unsatisfactory  ending  in  its  present  form,  the  only 


THE    ASCENT    OF    HERACLES    TO    OLYMPUS. 
Ancient  vase  picture. 


166 


comfort  being  that  in  his  death  the  hero  kills  an  incredible 
number  of  Philistines.  If  this  had  been  all,  the  Biblical 
tale  would  simply  be  the  record  of  a  dearly  bought  victory 
of  the  Philistines. 

However,  we  must  take  into  consideration, — and  the 
significance  of  this  point  should  not  be  underrated, — that 
Christians  look  upon  Samson  as  one  of  the  prototypes  of 
Christ.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  the  point  which  alone  could 
have  made  Samson  a  prototype  of  Christ  is  missing  in  the 
Samson  story. 


DEATH   AND   RESURRECTION    OF  THE   SUN, 


135 


Prototype  means  a  first  or  imperfect  and  only  tentative 
type.  All  solar  heroes  are  prototypes  of  Christ,  and  when 
the  fulfilment  of  the  times  focused  all  pre-Christian  re- 
ligions into  one,  everything  worthy  and  good  in  the  proto- 
types of  Christ  was  transferred  upon  Jesus  w^iom  the 
Church  accepted  as  the  fulfilment.  In  this  perspective  the 
Samson  story  seems  to  regain  its  original  pagan  signifi- 
cance as  symbolizing  man's  hope  for  immortality. 

The  saviours  and  heroes  of  Greek  and  Roman  mythol- 


DESCENT  OF  DIONYSUS  TO  HADES. 


ogy  (Heracles,  Dionysus,  Orpheus,  ^neas  etc.),  had  gone 
down  into  the  domain  of  Hades  and  returned  to  the  land 
of  the  living;  so  it  was  a  predetermined  doctrine  that  Jesus 
before  he  could  be  recognized  as  the  Christ,  had  to  descend 
to  hell  and  rise  again  from  the  tomb. 

The  original  narrative  of  the  Samson  story  must  have 
ended  in  the  glorious  return  of  the  hero  to  life,  but  the 
Biblical  account  knows  nothing  of  it. 


136  THE   STORY   OF    SAMSON. 


THE  PHCENICIAN   MELKARTH. 

We  have  reliable  information  that  the  Phoenicians  cele- 
brated Melkarth's  death  and  resurrection  on  two  distinct 
days  of  their  festive  calendar.  The  commemoration  of  the 
god's  self-sacrifice  on  the  pyre  was  still  celebrated  in  the 
days  of  Dio  Chrysostom  in  an  annual  feast  at  which  the 
god's  effigy  was  burned  on  a  gorgeous  pyre;  and  Pro- 
fessor W.  Robertson  Smith  quoting  this  statement  from 
O.  Mi^iller  adds  that  it  "must  have  its  origin  in  an  older 
rite,  in  which  the  victim  was  not  a  mere  effigy  but  a  the- 
anthropic  sacrifice,  i.  e.,  an  actual  man  or  sacred  animal, 
whose  life  according  to  an  antique  conception  was  an  em- 
bodiment of  the  divine  human  life."  The  story  of  Sar- 
danapalus  and  kindred  legends  are  merely  survivals  of  the 
Melkarth  myth  as  has  been  pointed  out  by  O.  Miiller  in 
his  article  ''Sandon  und  Sardanapal."^ 

The  festival  of  the  resurrection  of  Melkarth  was  cele- 
brated annually  in  the  month  of  Peritius  which  falls  at 
the  end  of  February  and  the  beginning  of  March,  at  the 
time  when  the  quail  returns  to  Palestine,  coming  in  im- 
mense crowds  in  a  single  night  ;^  and  according  to  Eu- 
doxus^  a  quail  sacrifice  was  made  to  commemorate  the 
resurrection  of  the  god. 

Every  myth  of  deep  religious  significance  has  the  tend- 
ency to  change  into  saga  or  legend,  and  will  even  influence 
history.  Myths  are  frequently  humanized  by  being  as- 
cribed to  a  national  hero,  or  to  some  prominent  historical 
person.  But  it  also  happens  that  some  pious  man  is  in- 
fluenced by  the  ideas  of  his  religion  and  actualizes  in  his 
life  the  lesson  which  his  faith  has  installed  into  his  heart. 
This  is  seen  in  the  following  incident  recorded  in  Hero- 
dotus VII,   167.     There  the  Greek  historian  tells  of  the 

'Rhein.  Mus.,  Ser.  I,  Vol.  HI.  ''Jos.  Ant.  VHI,  5.  3- 

^  Quoted  by  Athen,  IX,  47. 


DEATH   AND  RESURRFXTION   OF  THE   SUN.  1 3/ 

Carthag^inians  fighting  with  the  Greeks  in  Sicily  in  a  battle 
which  lasted  the  whole  day  from  morning  until  night;  and 
that  Hamilcar,  anxious  to  gain  a  decisive  victory,  offered 
holocausts  on  a  great  pyre,  Imt  when  he  saw  that  his 
people  were  routed,  leapt  into  the  fire  himself  and  sacri- 
ficed his  life  for  the  good  of  his  people.  Thus  he  was 
1)urned  to  death  and  disappeared,  and  Herodotus  adds: 
"In  this  way  Hamilcar  may  have  disappeared  as  is  stated 
by  the  Carthaginians,  or  it  may  have  been  different  as  say 
the  Syracusans,  but  this  much  is  sure  that  the  Carthagin- 
ians offer  him  sacrifices,  and  have  erected  monuments  in 
his  honor  in  all  their  colonies,  though  the  greatest  of  them 
is  in  the  city  of  Carthage." 

Some  scholars  think  that  Herodotus  here  confuses  the 
Carthaginian  hero  with  his  god  and  transfers  the  myth 
from  Baal  Melkarth  upon  Hamilcar ;  but  whether  or  not 
the  incident  is  to  be  accepted  as  historical,  it  proves  the 
power  of  myth  and  the  influence  of  religious  conceptions 
upon  the  actual  life  of  the  people. 

THE  DYING  GOD. 

There  are  a  number  of  incidental  features  in  the  Sam- 
son legend  that  are  occasionally  met  with  in  kindred  tales 
of  saviours,  dying  gods,  sacrificial  divinities  and  solar  he- 
roes. They  have  not  1)een  mentioned  before,  because  they 
are  difiicult  to  classify  and  so  we  group  them  here  to- 
gether as  a  collection  of  stray  observations  having  one 
common  point  of  issue,  the  fate  of  the  saviour-god  who 
lives  and  dies  for  mankind. 

The  people  of  a  primitive  age  formed  their  idea  of  a 
saviour-god  according  to  their  religious  convictions,  tra- 
ditions, expectations  and  especially  their  superstitions,  all 
of  w^hich  had  become  incorporated  in  the  performance  of 
their  annual  festivals.  AMien  the  time  came  that  they  ex- 
pected a  Messiah  or  a  Saviour,  thev  naturallv  measured 


138  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

those  figures  of  stories  or  perhaps  also  of  natural  life,  with, 
the  notions  they  thus  attributed  to  the  ideal  formed  of  him  ; 
and  as  soon  as  some  hero,  historical  or  legendary,  became 
a  candidate  for  the  honor  of  being  recognized  as  a  god- 
man  his  admirers  naturally  ascribed  to  him  all  those  fea- 
tures which  were  deemed  the  indispensable  characteristics 
of  the  god. 

As  an  instance  of  this  general  rule  we  find  in  the  canon- 
ical scriptures  of  the  Buddhists  thirty-two  main,  and  eighty 
minor  characteristic  marks^  ascribed  to  the  Buddha,  and 
there  it  is  stated  that  Gautama  Siddhartha  possessed  them 
all,  incredible  though  it  may  have  been.  In  the  same  way 
there  are  thirty-two  "Prognostics"  indicating  the  birth  of 
the  Buddha.  We  quote  in  this  connection  only  a  few  to 
characterize  the  whole  class  :^ 

"An  immeasurable  light  spread  through  ten  thousand 
worlds ;  the  blind  recovered  their  sight,  as  if  from  desire  to 
see  this  his  glory;  the  deaf  received  their  hearing;  the  dumb 
talked ;  the  hunchbacked  became  straight  of  body ;  the  lame 
recovered  the  power  to  walk ;  all  those  in  bonds  w^ere  freed 
from  their  bonds  and  chains;  the  fires  w^ent  out  in  all  the 
hells." 

The  argument  is  simply  this:  that  without  any  doubt 
Gautama  Siddhartha  was  the  Buddha,  therefore  all  the 
characteristics  and  prognostics  of  a  Buddha  apply  to  him. 

The  general  law,  modified  only  in  its  details,  holds 
good  in  Christianity.  The  Gospel  writers  deem  it  their 
duty  to  prove  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  and  so  even  w4iere 
they  do  not  manufacture  the  facts  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  their 
reports  are  made  under  the  influence  of  their  interpretation 
of  the  Christ  idea.  It  is  taken  for  granted  by  the  early 
Christians  that  the  death  of  Jesus  was  a  vicarious  atone- 
ment.   A\>  read  that  he  was  king,  that  he  played  the  part 

^  Enumerated  in  the  Dhaniia  Samgraha. 

introduction  to  the  Jataka,  I,  47.  21.  Translated  by  Warren  in  his 
Buddhism  in  Translations,  p.  44. 


DEATH   AND  RESURRECTION   OF  THE  SUN. 


139 


SIEGFRIED  S  DEATH. 
After  a  painting  by  Herman  Hendrich. 

The  artist  bears  in  mind  the  mythical  significance  of  the  Sieg- 
fried saga  in  representing  the  death  of  the  solar  hero  as  taking 
place  at  the  moment  of  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  while  we  see  the 
transient  victory  of  the  power  of  evil  in  the  sinister  and  treach- 
erous figure  of  Hagen. 


140  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

of  a  mock  king  shortly  before  his  death,  that  his  devotees 
must  eat  his  flesh  and  drink  his  blood,  otherwise  they  can 
not  partake  of  the  blessings  of  his  sacrifice. 

We  do  not  say  that  the  life  of  Jesus,  especially  his  pas- 
sion and  crucifixion  were  unhistorical ;  on  the  contrary  we 
believe  firmly  that  the  nucleus  of  the  Gospel  stories  is  based 
upon  fact,  but  we  insist  that  the  Gospel  writers  had  in  mind 
a  typical,  albeit  vague,  idea  of  the  traditional  conception  of 
the  god-man,  and  they  interpreted  the  facts  with  a  tend- 
ency which  consciously  or  unconsciously  dominated  their 
minds,  that  they  had  to  prove  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ 
and  that  both  his  personality  and  his  destiny  fulfilled  all 
the  conditions  of  the  current  expectations.  Thereby  they 
incorporated  inadvertently  and  sometimes  purposely  all 
those  features  which  in  their  time  were  deemed  indispen- 
sable characteristics  of  the  Saviour. 

We  notice  that  Heracles  is  made  a  servant  and  he  is 
bound  by  his  destiny  to  accomplish  the  twelve  labors  for 
the  weal  of  mankind.  The  underlying  idea  is  that  the 
sun  drudges  as  a  slave  in  the  ministry  of  our  needs ;.  and  so 
Samson  too  is  degraded  into  a  slave  and  set  to  turning 
a  mill.  It  is  expressly  stated  also  of  Christ  (Phil.  ii.  7) 
that  he  "took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant." 

The  explanation  of  the  unhappy  fate  of  the  dying  god 
receives  difi^erent  versions  in  dififerent  stories,  but  it  is 
natural  that  he  is  always  represented  as  the  innocent  vic- 
tim of  treachery  ,  Judas  is  made  responsible  for  the  cruci- 
fixion of  Jesus,  and  Samson  succumbs  to  the  wiles  of  the 
treacherous  Delilah.  The  legendary  character  of  the  story 
appears  also  in  the  fact  that  any  ordinary  mortal  would 
have  been  on  his  guard  against  the  falsehoods  of  his  par- 
amour, but  in  myths  and  legends  the  destiny  of  a  man  is 
determined  by  other  conditions,  and  so  he  is  represented 
as  incredibly  stupid  and  absolutely  blind  to  the  snares  laid 
for  him.     On  the  other  hand,  Delilah  as  well  as  the  Phil- 


DEATH   AND  RESURRECTION   OF  THE   SUN.  I4I 

istines  ought  to  have  had  other  methods  to  find  out  Sam- 
son's secret. 

Berosus  tells  us  of  Babylonian  customs  that  "during 
the  five  days  of  the  festival  called  the  Sacaca,  a  prisoner 
condemned  to  death  was  dressed  in  the  king's  robes,  seated 
on  the  king's  throne,  allowed  to  eat,  drink,  and  order  what- 
ever he  chose,  and  even  permitted  to  sleep  with  the  king's 
concubines.  But  at  the  end  of  five  days  he  was  stripped 
of  his  royal  insignia,  scourged  and  hanged  or  crucified.'"'^ 
This  feast  was  celebrated  to  represent  dramatically  the 
fate  of  the  dying  god  in  the  same  spirit  and  a  similar 
fashion  as  was  the  custom  among  the  Aztecs  of  Central 
America  and  the  Khonds  of  Bengal. 

This  Babylonian  rite  is  apparently,  as  Mr.  Frazer  sug- 
gests,'* a  further  evolution  of  a  more  ancient  custom  that 
is  still  practiced  among  the  savage  tribes  of  Africa,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  king,  who  is  believed  to  be  an  incarnation 
of  the  deity,  usually  the  god  of  life,  or  of  the  sun.  or 
heaven,  is  sacrificed  in  his  best  years  and  before  his  phys- 
ical power  can  give  out.     Mr.  Frazer  says: 

"We  must  not  forget  that  the  king  is  slain  in  his  char- 
acter of  a  god,  his  death,  and  resurrection,  as  the  only 
means  of  perpetuating  the  divine  life  unimpaired,  being 
deemed  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  his  people  and  the 
world." 

With  the  advance  of  civilization  the  old  custom  was 
modified.     Mr.  Frazer  says: 

"When  the  time  drew  near  for  the  king  to  be  put  to 
death,  he  abdicated  for  a  few  days,  during  which  a  tem- 
porary king  reigned  and  suffered  in  his  stead.  At  first 
the  temporary  king  may  have  been  an  innocent  person, 
possibly  a  member  of  the  king's  own  family:  but  with  the 
growth  of  civilization,  the  sacrifice  of  an  innocent  person 

^  See  J.  G.  Frazer,  The  Golden  Bough,  Vol.  II,  pp.  24  ff. 
"  Ibid.,  II,  240  ff. 


142  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

would  be  revolting  to  the  public  sentiment,  and  accord- 
ingly a  condemned  criminal  would  be  invested  with  the 
brief  and  fatal  sovereignty." 

Finally  even  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  a  substitute  king 
was  abolished,  and  either  replaced  by  an  animal  victim  or 
merely  acted  on  the  stage  in  a  dramatic  performance. 

Though  the  victim  is  a  god,  or  rather  the  representa- 
tion or  incarnation  of  the  deity,  he  is  to  be  abandoned  to 
the  most  dreadful  fate  of  death,  and  so  we  meet  with  a 
statement  that  in  the  last  moment  he  is  forsaken  by  his 
god.  As  Christ  cries  out  ''Eli,  Eli,  lama  sabachtliani,"  so 
we  learn  that  Yahveh  forsook  Samson  and  his  strength 
was  gone. 

A  special  endeavor  is  made  to  have  the  sacrifice  volun- 
tary, and  this  is  done  among  the  Aztecs  by  intoxicating 
the  victim  w^ith  drinks  and  with  honors  and  slaying  him 
before  he  has  a  chance  to  give  an  ill-omened  sign  of  regret. 
At  the  same  time  the  people  must  have  come  into  posses- 
sion of  the  person  of  the  victim  in  a  legal  w^ay.  Accord- 
ingly it  is  insisted  on  that  he  has  to  be  purchased  with 
money  and  the  price  must  be  paid  before  the  sacrifice  is 
performed.  This  feature  is  evident  in  the  ritual  of  the 
Khonds  and  is  not  absent  either  in  the  Christ  story  where 
Judas  receives  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  nor  in  the  Sam- 
son story  in  which  a  sum  of  money  is  paid  to  Delilah. 

The  idea  that  no  atonement  of  sin  is  possible  without 
the  shedding  of  blood  is  common  to  all  pre-Christian  re- 
ligions (with  the  sole  exception  of  Buddhism),  and  even 
Christianity  still  clings  to  it,  as  we  read  in  Hebrews  ix.  22. 
"without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission." 

The  old  Mexicans  slew  their  god  and  ate  him,  which  is 
a  symbolical  act  indicating  that  we  live  on  the  deity,  be 
it  the  god  of  vegetation  or  any  other  life-spending  source 
of  nature.  Originally  the  harvest  god  is  thought  present 
in  the  very  cerials,  and  in  partaking  of  food  we  partake 


DEATH   AND   RESURRECTION   OF  THE   SUN.  I43 

of  the  god  himself.  From  this  standpoint  it  was  deemed 
essential  that  the  devotees  should  eat  the  flesh  and  drink 
the  blood''  of  the  god  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  in  the  age 
of  savagery,  this  ritual  w\as  literally  performed,  horrible 
though  it  must  appear  to  modern  mankind  that  condemns 
cannibalism  as  the  most  detestable  abomination.  In  place 
of  the  human  representative  of  the  god  we  find  in  the  cere- 
monies of  a  less  savage  age  a  substitute  of  some  kind, 
either  a  sacrificial  animal  or  a  sacrificial  bread  ofifering, 
which  latter  was  freqently  kneaded  in  the  shape  of  the 
god  incarnation.  A  ceremony  in  which  the  figure  of  a  god 
made  of  dough  is  killed  and  then  sacramentally  eaten  is 
still  performed  in  Tibet,  and  we  can  not  doubt  that  the 
original  conception  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  an  echo  of  this 
ancient  rite  of  eating  the  god,  w4iich  was  deemed  an  es- 
sential part  of  the  feast  held  in  his  honor. 

The  same  idea  is  very  emphatically  expressed  in  John 
^'i-  53~57"  "Then  Jesus  said  unto  them,  Verily,  verily,  T 
say  unto  you,  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man, 
and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you.  Whoso  eateth 
my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my  blood,  hath  eternal  life ;  and 
I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day.  For  my  flesh  is  meat 
indeed,  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed.  He  that  eateth  my 
flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood,  dwelleth  in  me,  and  I  in  him. 
As  the  living  Father  hath  sent  me,  and  I  live  by  the  Fa- 
ther :  so  he  that  eateth  me,  even  he  shall  live  by  me." 

The  great  progress  of  Christianity  consisted  in  the 
practical  abolition  of  all  blood-sacrifices  as  well  as  the 
actual  partaking  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  victim.  The 
idea  of  the  significance  of  blood  and  the  shedding  of  blood 
was  too  firmly  rooted  in  the  minds  of  the  large  masses  of 
mankind  simply  to  be  set  aside  as  was  done  in  India  by 
the  Buddha.     Acknowdedging  the  force  of  the  ancient  re- 

"  Even  tlic  Old  Testament  speaks  of  "the  blood  of  the  grapes."  See  Gen. 
xliv,  1 1. 


144  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

ligions,  Christianity  overcame  them  by  pointing*  out  that 
the  atonement  was  now  accomphshed  for  all  time  throug'h 
the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  sacrament  of  partaking  of  the 
very  flesh  and  blood  of  the  god  was  sufficiently  performed 
by  the  substitution  of  sanctified  bread  and  wine.  This 
satisfied  all  the  pagan  claims  without  continuing  the  bar- 
barous ceremony. 

If  the  original  Samson  story  contained  anything  of  this 
kind  it  would  have  been  so  offensive  to  the  redactor  that 
he  would  not  have  tolerated  it,  and  so  its  absence  is  natu- 
rally explained. 

How  tenacious  traditions  are!  The  old  ritual  of  a 
human  sacrifice  has  been  abandoned  but  the  festival  is  still 
continued  to  the  present  day  in  the  form  of  the  carnival 
which  not  without  a  good  historical  reason  precedes  in  the 
annals  of  the  Christian  calendar  the  celebration  of  the 
passion  of  Christ.  The  king  of  the  carnival  was  originally 
the  victim  that  was  to  undergo  the  torture  of  a  sacrificial 
death,  but  shortly  before  his  doom  he  enjoyed  the  honors 
of  a  mock-kingdom.  We  read  of  Christ  that  they  "put 
on  him  a  scarlet  robe.  And  w^hen  they  had  platted  a  crown 
of  thorns,  they  put  it  upon  his  head,  and  a  reed  in  his  right 
hand;  and  they  bowed  the  knee  before  him,  and  mocked 
him,  saying,  Hail,  King  of  the  Jews !" 

It  can  scarcely  be  accidental  that  the  Philistines  are 
said  to  have  had  Samson  produced  at  their  festival,  "that 
he  might  make  them  sport." 

We  cannot  doul)t  that  the  king  of  the  Sacsean  festival 
was  conducted  through  the  city  in  festive  procession,  and 
we  are  inclined  to  think  that  this  feature  of  the  ceremony 
formed  one  of  the  most  popular  and  impressive  parts  of 
the  feast.  Even  this  has  been  preserved  in  both  the  story 
of  Christ  and  latter-day  customs,  such  as  carnival  proces- 
sions. The  Gospel  stories  dwell  with  special  emphasis 
on  the  triumphal  entry  of  Jesus  into  Jerusalem,  and  some 


DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION   OF  THE  SUN. 


145 


140  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

of  our  Christian  artists  liave  indeed  represented  the  scene 
as  a  theatrical  pageant  which  is  specially  notable  in  Dore's 
well-known  painting. 

Our  carnivals  have  originated  from  dramatic  represen- 
tations and  are  a  secular  treatment  of  the  same  religious 
ceremony,  which  in  the  Church  developed  as  the  so-called 
mystery-play,  originally  a  dramatic  performance  of  the 
Easter  story. 

In  the  age  of  Constantine  Christianity  became  the  state 
religion  of  the  Roman  empire.  This  event,  to  be  sure, 
Christianized  the  broad  masses  of  the  people  but  it  intro- 
duced at  the  same  time  a  number  of  pagan  features  and 
pagan  beliefs  into  the  life  of  the  Church.  It  must  have 
been  in  this  age  that  the  Church  continued  the  practice  of 
making  the  Easter  ritual  a  dramatic  performance  after  the 
precedence  of  the  Attis  and  Tammuz  festivals,  the  former 
of  which,  as  we  learn  from  Firmicus,  was  celebrated  on 
the  first  day  of  spring  while  his  resuscitation  to  life  was 
placed  two  days  later. 

How  much  the  Christian  ceremonies  preserve  of  the 
ancient  pagan  traditions  appears  also  from  the  significance 
that  light  plays  in  the  Easter  ritual.  In  the  Greek  Church 
the  priest  announces  the  beginning  of  the  feast  with  the 
words:  "The  celestial  fire  has  come  down  from  the  clouds; 
the  holy  candle  is  lit." 

There  is  an  additional  point  worth  mentioning.  The 
word  sakhaq,^  which  in  English  versions  is  commonly 
translated  "to  make  sport,"  includes  the  meaning  of  sing- 
ing, dancing,  and  playing  on  musical  instruments,  in  the 
same  way  that  the  word  "play"  is  also  used  in  both 
senses.'^  Accordingly  Luther  translates  the  term  by  spie- 
len,  and  the  traditional  interpretation  as  represented  in 

'  For  further  particulars  see  Gesenius's  Hebrew  Dicitionary,  German  ed., 
Vol.  H,  p.  615. 


DEATH    AND   RESURRECTION   OF  THE   SUN.  I47 

some  Biblical  pictures  makes  Samson  play  on  a  stringed 
instrument  which  proves  that  our  popular  conception  of 
him  is  unconsciously  associated  with  Apollo,  the  solar  god, 
who  is  at  the  same  time  a  master  of  the  lute. 

These  notes  on  comparative  saviour-lore  throw  a  light 
also  on  the  construction  of  the  Gospel  story  of  Christ  in 
which  we  find  so  many  echoes  of  ancient  pagan  saviours. 


SAMSON  S  DEATH.  *""*" 

Here  as  well  as  in  the  illustration  of  the  same  scene  on  page  iii 
the  harp  is  in  evidence. 

Samson,  the  solar  hero  and  as  such  a  prototype  of 
Christ,  was  betrayed  and  sold  for  money;  he  drudged  as 
a  slave,  and  shortly  before  his  death  made  sport  before  the 
Philistines.  These  incidents  are  minor  points,  but  their 
introduction  into  the  Samson  legend  can  scarcely  be  re- 
garded as  accidental,  when  we  bear  in  mind  the  signifi- 
cance which  these  same  features  possess  in  kindred  stories 


148  THE    STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

where  their  connection  with  the  underlying  idea  of  the 
fate  of  the  dying  saviour-god  has  not  yet  been  lost. 

OSIRIS. 

The  same  keynote  of  the  dying  god  who  rises  to  new 
life  resounds  through  the  Egyptian  story  of  Osiris,  which 
is  a  hoary  echo  of  the  primitive  African  faith.  We  here 
present  a  brief  synopsis  of  it  in  the  terse  language  of  Pro- 
fessor Budge,  who  in  his  preface  to  Tlic  Gods  of  the  Egyp- 
tians (xiv-xvi)  characterizes  the  belief  in  Osiris  thus: 

"The  cult  of  Osiris,  the  dead  man  deified,  and  the  ear- 
liest forms  of  his  worship,  were,  no  doubt,  wholly  of 
African  origin;  these  are  certainly  the  oldest  elements  in 
the  religion  of  the  Dynastic  Period,  and  the  most  persist- 
ent, for  Osiris  maintained  his  position  of  the  god  and  judge 
of  the  dead  from  the  Predynastic  to  the  Ptolemaic  Period. 
The  followers  of  Horus  who  brought  a  solar  religion  with 
them  into  Egypt  from  the  East,  never  succeeded  in  dis- 
lodging Osiris  from  his  exalted  position,  and  his  cult  sur- 
vived undiminished  notwithstanding  the  powerful  influ- 
ence which  the  priests  of  Ra,  and  the  worshipers  of  Amen, 
and  the  votaries  of  Aten  respectively  exercised  throughout 
the  country.  The  heaven  of  Osiris  was  believed  to  exist 
in  a  place  where  the  fields  were  fertile  and  well  stocked 
with  cattle,  and  where  meat  and  drink  were  abundant ;  the 
abodes  of  the  blessed  were  thought  to  be  constructed  after 
the  model  of  the  comfortable  Egyptian  homesteads  in 
which  they  had  lived  during  life,  and  the  ordinary  Egyp- 
tian hoped  to  live  in  one  of  these  with  his  wives  and  pa- 
rents. On  the  other  hand,  the  followers  of  Ra,  the  sun- 
god,  believed  in  a  heaven  of  a  more  spiritual  character, 
and  their  great  hope  was  to  occupy  a  seat  in  the  boat  of 
the  god,  and,  arrayed  in  light,  to  travel  whithersoever  he 
went.  They  wished  to  become  bright  and  shining  spirits, 
and  to  live  upon  the  celestial  meat  and  drink  upon  which 


DEATH   AND   RESURRECTION   OF  THE   SUN.  I49 

he  lived;  as  he  was  so  they  hoped  to  be  in  every  respect. 
The  materialistic  heaven  of  Osiris  appealed  to  the  masses 
of  Egypt,  and  the  heaven  where  Ra  lived  to  the  priest  of 
Ra  and  other  solar  gods,  and  to  royal  and  aristocratic 
families,  and  to  the  members  of  the  foreign  section  of  the 
community  who  were  of  Eastern  origin. 

"The  various  waves  of  religious  thought  and  feeling, 
which  swept  over  Egypt  during  the  five  thousand  years  of 
her  history  which  are  known  to  us,  did  not  seriously  dis- 
turb the  cult  of  Osiris,  for  it  held  out  to  the  people  hopes 
of  resurrection  and  immortality  of  a  character  which  no 
other  form  of  religion  could  give.  Secure  in  these  hopes 
the  people  regarded  the  various  changes  and  developments 
of  religious  ideas  in  their  country  with  equanimity  and 
modifications  in  the  public  worship  of  the  gods,  provided 
that  the  religious  fasts  and  processions  were  not  inter- 
rupted, moved  them  but  little.  Kings  and  priests  from 
time  to  time  made  attempts  to  absorb  the  cult  of  Osiris 
into  religious  systems  of  a  solar  character,  but  they  failed, 
and  Osiris,  the  man-god,  always  triumphed,  and  at  the 
last,  when  his  cult  disappeared  before  the  religion  of  the 
Man  Christ,  the  Egyptians  who  embraced  Christianity 
found  that  the  moral  system  of  the  old  cult  and  that  of 
the  new  religion  were  similar,  and  the  promises  of  resur- 
rection and  immortality  in  each  so  much  alike,  that  they 
transferred  their  allegiance  from  Osiris  to  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth without  difficulty.  Moreover,  Isis  and  the  child  Horus 
were  straightway  identified  with  Mary  the  Virgin  and  her 
Son,  and  in  the  apocryphal  literature  of  the  first  centuries 
which  followed  the  evangelization  of  Egypt,  several  of  the 
legends  about  Lsis  and  her  sorrowful  wanderings  were 
made  to  center  round  the  Mother  of  Christ.  Certain  of 
the  attributes  of  the  sister  goddesses  of  Isis  were  also 
ascribed  to  her,  and,  like  the  Goddess  Neith  of  Sai's,  she 
was  declared  to  possess  perpetual  virginity.     Certain  of 


150  THE    STORY    OF   SAMSON. 

the  Egyptian  Christian  Fathers  gave  to  the  Virgin  the 
title  "Theotokos,"  or  ''Mother  of  God,"  forgetting,  ap- 
parently, that  it  was  an  exact  translation  of  netcr  niut,  a 
very  old  and  common  title  of  Isis." 

To  us  and  at  any  rate  to  the  average  Christian  since  the 
beginning  of  the  middle  ages,  the  belief  in  Osiris  is  pagan, 
and  many  of  its  details  may  seem  absurd,  but  to  the  ancient 
Egyptian  the  story  was  full  of  significance.  It  is  difficult 
to  say  how  far  the  average  Egyptian  believed  in  the  de- 
tails of  the  myth,  but  we  know  that  the  significance  of  it 
was  fully  appreciated  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and  served 
as  a  source  of  unspeakable  comfort  to  millions  of  people. 

The  same  is  true  of  other  myths.  The  lamentation 
for  Tammuz,  which  the  prophet^  so  bitterly  denounces,  was 
in  its  time  no  less  deeply  felt  nor  less  devoutly  celebrated 
in  Syria  than  a  Good  Friday  celebration  now-a-days  in 
Christian  Italy  may  stir  the  hearts  of  good  Christians. 

The  stories  of  Heracles,  Jason,  Adonis,  and  also  of 
the  demi-gods  of  India,  as  well  as  the  interior  of  Asia, 
and  even  of  the  savages  of  Africa  and  the  Oceanic  Islands, 
all  come  from  the  same  source,  which  is  the  religious  want 
of  a  saviour,  of  a  God-man,  who  though  real  man,  is 
divine,  an  incarnation  of  the  deity,  and  comes  to  rescue 
us  from  evil,  sin  and  death.  The  meaning  of  the  story  is 
the  same  throughout,  and  the  religious  spirit  that  begets 
it  is  higher  or  lower  according  to  the  nature  of  the  people. 

That  the  pagans  are  frequently  possessed  of  the  same 
religious  devotion  and  attain  to  the  greatest  heights  of 
moral  ideals,  can  be  seen  by  a  study  of  the  several  religions 
of  the  earth.  How  kin  the  ancient  Babylonians  were  to  the 
Jews  in  their  religious  conception,  and  especially  in  their 
idea  of  sin  and  atonement,  is  shown  in  their  penitential 
hymns  so  similar  even  in  details  to  the  Hebrew  psalms  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

'  Ezekiel  viii.  14. 


DEATH   AND   RESURRECTION   OF   THE   SUN.  I5I 


SAMSON'S  TOMB. 

Every  province  of  Egypt  had  a  sepulchre  of  Osiris, 
and  the  legend  explained  this  hy  telling  how  his  l)ody  had 
been  cut  into  several  pieces  which  were  buried  in  these 
different  places.  Perhaps  originally  the  priests  of  every 
sepulchre  claimed  for  their  fane  that  the  entire  body  of 
Osiris  rested  there ;  for  we  know  that  some  of  the  Greek 
gods,  too,  possessed  tombs,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that 
the  same  god  possessed  several  tombs.  We  will  not  be 
mistaken  if  we  look  upon  these  tombs  as  cenotaphs,  or 
empty  sepulchres,  not  unlike  Christian  crypts,  erected  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  impressing  the  people  with  the  reality 
of  the  god  that  had  died  and  come  to  life  again. 

It  is  pretty  certain  that  the  names  beginning  with  Beth, 
i.  e.,  "house,"  indicate  the  presence  of  a  temple.  Beth- 
Lehem  is  the  city  where  stood  the  house  of  Laham  (i.  e., 
a  temple  of  the  god  Laham)  and  in  the  same  w^ay  Beth 
Shemesh  must  have  been  the  site  of  the  temple  of  the  sun- 
god,  Shamash.  It  was  situated  right  between  Zorah  and 
Eshtaol  and  we  are  told  that  there,  too,  ( i.  e.,  between 
Zorah  and  Eshtaol)  was  the  tomb  of  the  Manoah  tribe 
where  Samson  lay  buried.  This  sepulchre  may  have  been 
near  the  temple  of  Shamash  or  may  even  have  been  con- 
nected with  it,  and  the  probability  is  that  it  w^as  just  as 
empty  as  were  all  the  cenotaphs  of  Egyptian  and  other 
Gentile  gods. 

In  the  Recognitions  of  CIc incut  (X,  23)  it  is  stated 
that  the  tomb  of  Zeus  is  shown  among  the  Cretans,  and  we 
read  further  (ibid.  24): 

"But  also  the  sepulchres  of  Jupiter's  sons,  who  are 
regarded  among  the  Gentiles  as  gods,  are  openly  pointed 
out,  one  in  one  place,  and  another  in  another :  that  of 
Mercury  at  Hermopolis;  that  of  the  Cyprian  Venus  at 
Cyprus;    that  of  Mars  in  Thrace;    that  of  Bacchus  at 


15-3  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

Thebes,  where  he  is  said  to  have  been  torn  in  pieces ;  that 
of  Hercules  at  Tyre,  where  he  was  burnt  with  fire ;  that  of 
^lisculapius  in  Epidaurus." 

WHY  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  SAMSON  WAS  SUPPRESSED. 

Though  the  Samson  legend  must  have  been  the  ancient 
Hebrew  myth  of  the  adventures  of  the  sun-god,  all  those 
extraordinary  miracles  which  savor  of  pagan  divinities 
have  been  reduced  to  deeds  of  human  valor  and  among 
other  things  the  most  characteristic  event  of  a  mytholog- 
ical nature,  Samson's  resurrection,  has  been  removed.  I 
am  convinced  that  in  the  original  Samson  epic  the  return 
of  the  hero  from  Sheol  played  a  prominent  part,  for  all 
pagan  sun  worshipers  gloried  in  their  god,  because,  al- 
though at  nightfall  he  descends  into  hell,  he  comes  out 
again  the  next  morning  unscathed.  All  sun-hero  myths 
preach  immortality  on  the  argument  that  the  sun  loses 
his  power  in  winter  and  is  resuscitated  to  life  in  the  spring. 

The  theme  of  the  original  Samson  legend  can  only  have 
been  the  same  great  legend  which  at  all  times  and  among 
all  nations  engrossed  the  attention  of  religious  thinkers. 
It  is  an  answer  to  the  question  "Is  death  the  end  of  all?" 
The  legend  of  the  descent  of  the  sun  into  Orcus  and  his 
triumphant  return  to  life  is  the  good  tidings  that  proclaims 
the  eternity  of  life,  and  the  remarkable  stories  of  the  ad- 
ventures of  the  sun,  be  it  in  the  different  countries  over 
which  he  passed  or  in  the  several  mansions  in  the  sky,  form 
an  inexhaustible  storehouse  for  all  kinds  of  wondrous  ro- 
mance. 

This  same  subject  constitutes  the  most  typical  feature 
of  all  the  most  important  and  most  popular  myths  of  man- 
kind. In  fact  we  may  consider  it  as  the  most  characteristic 
type  of  pagan  religion  which  is  still  reflected  in  fairy  tales 
(such  as  the  story  of  Psyche)  and  all  kindred  traditions. 
Everywhere  we  meet  with  a  hero  who  is  somehow  the  in- 


DEATH   AND   RESURRECTION   OF  THE   SUN.  1 53 

carnation  of  the  deity  or  a  god  that  has  temporarily  as- 
sumed human  form  to  appear  on  earth  as  a  helper  and 
saviour.  \\'e  learn  of  his  troubles  and  dang-ers,  of  the 
enemies  who  encompass  him  and  gain  an  apparent  vic- 
tory over  his  cause,  but  finally  he  overcomes  all  evil  and 
breaks  through  the  doors  of  death  gaining  new  life  and 
new  strength  in  his  glorious  resurrection.  Nor  is  this 
characteristic  feature  of  pagan  myths  limited  to  the  sun- 
god.  It  appears  also  in  the  sprouting  and  withering  vege- 
tation, which  temporarily  succumbs  to  the  intrigues  of 
winter  but  reappears  victoriously  every  spring  in  the  field. 

It  is  a  remarkal)le  fact  which  has  frequently  been 
pointed  out,  that  while  Babylonians,  Syrians,  Phoenicians 
and  Egyptians  believed  in  immortality,  the  Old  Testament 
contains  no  allusions  to  it.  On  the  contrary,  it  denounces 
as  an  abomination  the  rites  of  Tammuz,  the  god  who  dies 
and  rises  to  life  again,  and  condemns  to  death  all  wizards 
and  witches  who  after  the  fashion  of  mediums  (as  in- 
stanced in  the  story  of  the  witch  of  Endor)  used  to  summon 
and  consult  the  spirits  of  the  dead.  The  truth  is  that  the 
priestly  redactors  were  animated  with  a  zeal  for  a  pure 
monotheism  and  a  contempt  for  all  pagan  institutions. 
They  were  convinced  that  Yahveh  had  revealed  himself 
to  Moses  as  the  one  and  only  true  God,  and  so  they  looked 
upon  all  traces  of  polytheistic  customs  in  their  traditions 
as  backsliding  into  the  ways  of  idolatry.  It  is  natural 
therefore  that  they  would  not  countenance  in  their  Scrip- 
tures such  features  or  doctrines  as  would  indicate  that 
their  fathers  had  sanctioned  the  fables  of  the  Gentiles,  and 
they  would  necessarily  omit  the  resurrection  story  of  Sam- 
son which  reminded  them  so  much  of  the  resurrection  of 
Tammuz. 

The  immortality  idea  could  not  be  suppressed  for  any 
length  of  time  and  so  it  asserted  itself  again  in  the  apoc- 
ryphal books  which  constitute  the  most  important  link  be- 


154  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

tween  Judaism  and  Christianity.  They  contain  the  seeds 
from  which  Christianity  developed  and  also  explain  how 
later  Judaism  adopted  a  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  which,  however,  has  been  purified  of  the  pagan  ele- 
ments attached  to  the  Babylonian  view,  so  closely  con- 
nected with  the  mythology  of  I  star  and  Tammuz  and  the 
superstitious  practices  of  spirit  conjurors. 

THE  REDACTION  OF  THE  SAMSON   STORY. 

The  treatment  of  the  Samson  legend  fairly  characterizes 
the  general  work  of  a  late  redactor.  It  is  firmly  established 
that  the  leading  minds  among  the  Jews  in  the  Babylonian 
exile  were  zealous  monotheists.  They  hated  mythology, 
polytheism,  and  the  worship  of  idols  in  any  form.  They 
spurned  the  paganism  of  the  surrounding  nations  as  well 
as  in  their  own  tradition.  And  so  in  collecting  their  sacred 
literature,  they  edited  the  several  scriptures  in  a  rational- 
izing spirit.  Far  from  being  credulous,  as  freethinkers 
usually  represent  them,  we  insist  that  they  were  the  ration- 
alists, the  freethinkers,  and  iconoclasts  of  their  age.  And 
so  they  either  cut  out  the  mythological  element  as  pagan 
superstition  or  humanized  its  supernatural  features,  or 
explained  pagan  institutions  as  apostacy.^ 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  Bible  that  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions fables  and  folklore  in  their  original  form  are  ab- 
sent, and  the  cosmological  stories  have  been  simplified  into 
a  dry  report  of  a  six  days'  work  of  creation,  yet  some 
traces  of  the  originally  mythological  character  of  the  an- 
cient Hebrew  legend  have  been  preserved  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, in  spite  of  the  attempt  at  their  obliteration.^ 

^  Such  passages  as  Judges  ii.  13,  or  iii.  7;  iv.  i;  viii.  38,  etc.  are  of  Deu- 
teronomic  origin  and,  it  seems  to  me,  indicate  omissions  from  the  sources 
which  the  priestly  redactor  still  had  at  his  command.  The  original  sources 
from  which  he  drew  his  account  were  not  yet  purely  monotheistic  and  must 
have  related  how  the  Israelites  worshiped  not  only  mn''  hut  also  Baal  and 
Astarte.  Our  redactor  ascrihed  all  the  misfortunes  that  befell  Israel  to  the 
worship  of  other  gods,  and  he  selected  with  preference  the  heroes  of  Yahveh 
worship  for  national  commendation. 

^  See  the  author's  articles  "The   Fairy-Tale   Element   in  the   Bible,"   The 


DEATH    AND   RESURRFXTION   OF  THE   SUN.  1 55 

Nothing  was  more  odious  to  the  reformers  of  Judaism 
than  the  pagan  ideas  incorporated  in  the  Tammuz  ritual, 
which  consists  in  the  bewaihng  of  the  dying  god,  and 
shortly  afterward  in  the  celebration  of  his  resurrection, 
a  kind  of  Babylonian  Good  Friday  with  its  subsequent 
Easter  festival.  The  absence  in  the  Old  Testament  of  any 
allusion  to  a  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  finds  its 
easiest  explanation  in  the  theory  that  all  references  to  it 
have  been  carefully  removed,  and  so  it  is  in  keeping  with 
the  general  tendency  of  the  redactor's  work  that  the  Sam- 
son story  should  have  been  cut  short  where  it  became  too 
similar  to  the  myths  of  pagan  deities  such  as  Tammuz, 
Adonis,  and  Marduk,  who  descended  into  the  realm  of  the 
dead,  broke  open  the  gates  of  hell,  and  returned  victor- 
iously to  the  land  of  the  living.  Thus  the  Samson  story 
by  being  rationalized  became  a  torso.  It  has  been  deprived 
of  its  original  meaning  and  has  simply  been  reduced  to  the 
story  of  a  rollicking  bravo,  whose  sole  merit  consists  in 
having  done  great  injury  to  the  Philistines. 

CONCLUSION. 

From  all  that  has  been  said  of  the  Samson  story  we 
must  grant  that  it  resembles  not  only  the  pagan  solar 
myths  and  the  fate  of  the  dying  gods,  but  also  the  life  of 
Christ  in  whom  in  the  course  of  the  religious  development 
of  mankind  all  these  weird  and  mysterious  notions  have 
found  their  final  expression.  But  the  main  event  without 
^^'hich  the  story  of  the  Crucified  would  be  a  tragedy — the 
resurrection — is  missing  in  the  Samson  story. 

\\niile  the  Samson  story  as  we  have  it  is  a  torso,  and 
can  as  such  be  regarded  as  satisfactory  neither  from  a 
religious  nor  literary  standpoint,  it  is  nevertheless  a  most 
valuable  relic  in  the  history  of  the  evolution  of  religious 

Monisf,  XI,  p.  405;  and  "The  Babylonian  and  He1)re\v  Views  of  Man's  Fate 
After  Death,"  Tlie  Open  Court,  XV,  p.  346. 


156 


THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON, 


ideas.  The  story  as  it  stands  has  no  doubt  been  mutilated 
and  has  suffered  from  the  hands  of  monotheistic  zealots, 
who  in  their  well-intended  anxiety  to  cut  out  the  pagan 


EASTER   MORNING. 
By  Fra  Angelico. 


element  have  removed  its  most  characteristic  features,  yet 
there  is  enough  left  to  give  an  approximate  idea  of  what 
the  ideal  of  a  divine  incarnation  had  become  in  the  phase 


DEATH   AND   RESURRECTION   OF  THE   SUN.  15/ 

of  Danite  civilization.  We  still  feel  the  thrill  with  which 
narrator  and  hearer  were  warmed  while  thinking  of  the 
irresistible  Samson.  We  enjoy  the  very  sound  of  the  He- 
brew original,  most  poetic  in  those  fragments  which  must 
be  deemed  most  ancient,  and  so  we  will  naturally  look  with 
reverence  upon  this  interesting  religious  document  for  we 
know  that  the  hero  who  is  represented  by  Heracles,  Izdu- 
bar,  Odysseus,  Siegfried,  Mithra  and  others,  is  a  prelimi- 
nary and  tentative  formation  of  that  great  ideal  which 
found  its  final  completion  in  the  Christian  idea  of  the  God- 
man,  Christ,  the  judge  who  at  his  second  advent  is  to  sit  in 
judgment  over  the  quick  and  the  dead,  the  King  of  the 
world  to  come  when  there  shall  be  no  misery,  no  want  nor 
worry,  and  no  death. 

There  is  one  point  only  to  be  added  for  the  purpose 
of  anticipating  a  misconstruction  of  the  significance  of  our 
results.  The  similarity  of  the  Christ  story  to  pagan  leg- 
ends does  not  lower  Christianity  to  the  level  of  paganism ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  it  raises  paganism  to  the  dignity  of 
genuine  religion.  Pagan  myths,  in  spite  of  their  crudities, 
are  born  of  the  same  yearning,  the  same  devotion,  the 
same  hopes.  We  do  not  say  that  paganism  and  Christian- 
ity are  on  the  same  level,  for  they  are  marked  by  decided 
dififerences.  Paganism  belongs  to  the  period  of  nature 
worship  while  Christianity  characterizes  the  age  in  which 
an  appreciation  of  the  soul  establishes  a  contrast  between 
nature  and  spirit.  As  a  result  of  these  dififerences  the 
Christian  version  of  the  God-man  discards  all  those  fea- 
tures which  are  all  too  human  and  all  too  natural,  and 
savor  strongly  of  materialism,  translating  the  story  into 
that  conception  of  spirituality  which  pervades  the  entire 
religious  atmosphere  of  the  age. 

Our  treatment  of  the  Samson  story  conveys  a  lesson 
of  no  mean  importance,  and  one  that  is  gradually  being 
recognized  among  leading  theologians,  namely  that  com- 


158  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

parative  religion  and  higher  criticism  will  considerably 
modify  our  religious  faith. 

Some  pious  people  in  their  well-intentioned  anxiety 
for  the  holiest  ideals  of  mankind  denounce  research  as 
ungodly  and  shun  it  as  if  it  were  sinful  and  a  work  of  the 
evil  one.  They  foresee  the  coming  change  and  feel  a  lack 
of  strength  to  adapt  themselves  to  it.  Yet  the  change 
is  unavoidable.  It  would  be  better  for  them  had  they 
less  belief  in  the  letter  and  more  faith  in  the  spirit.  If  the 
results  of  scientific  investigation  are  wrong  we  need  not 
worry,  for  they  will  soon  be  refuted;  but  if  they  be  the 
truth,  no  power  can  prevail  against  them.  And  if  they 
are  true,  they  can  not  be  evil,  for  the  truth  is  of  God — 
perhaps  not  of  the  God  of  a  sectarian  interpretation  of 
religion,  but  the  God  of  truth,  the  God  of  honesty,  the  God 
of  veracity,  the  God  of  science. 

Science  is  not  a  human  invention.  Science  is  a  reve- 
lation of  God  and  in  the  field  of  religion,  science  is  destined 
to  accomplish  the  W'Ork  of  a  great  reformation.  Science 
will  mature  our  religious  longings  and  purify  our  faith. 
Comparative  religion  will  broaden  us,  and  criticism  is  the 
refining  furnace  which  will  enable  us  to  separate  the  gold 
from  the  dross. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  we  shall  have  to  lose  some 
of  our  dearest  fancies.  They  will  go  because  they  were 
mere  fancies,  not  truths ;  but  let  us  not  forget  that  religion 
is  not  based  upon  historical  facts  nor  on  traditions  rooted 
in  the  past.  Religion  is  based  upon  eternal  truths.  Re- 
ligion exists,  it  has  existed,  and  will  exist  as  long  as  the 
human  heart  will  beat.  Religion  exists  to-day  because  the 
human  heart  is  possessed  of  certain  religious  needs.  We 
want  to  understand  ourselves  and  find  our  bearings  in 
the  journey  through  life.  We  want  to  know  the  meaninp; 
of  existence,  our  duties,  our  aim  and  purpose,  our  relation 
to  the  rest  of  the  world,  guidance  in  temptation  and  com- 


DEATH   AND  RESURRECTION   OF  THE   SUN.  1 59 

fort  in  vicissitudes.  Life  is  fleeting  and  a  proper  com- 
prehension of  its  significance  will  be  possible  only  if  we 
view  it  from  the  standpoint  of  the  eternal  which  consti- 
tutes the  permanent  background  of  its  phenomena,  the 
enduring  and  everlasting  in  the  world  of  restless  change. 

Paganism  has  been  superseded  by  Christianity;  and  yet 
Christianity  is  simply  the  historical  outcome  of  pre-Chris- 
tian paganism,  chastened  by  Jewish  monotheism  and  fo- 
cused in  a  new  sympathetic  form.  The  old  problems  are 
repeated  and  the  answer  is  made  in  the  selfsame  spirit. 

An  early  form  of  Christianity  was  asceticism  based 
upon  a  dualistic  conception  of  the  soul.  Asceticism  has 
been  rejected  by  protestantism  which  since  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  has  been  the  faith  of  the  most  progressive 
nations.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  interpretation 
of  protestantism  will  also  have  to  be  modified,  but  religion 
will  surely  remain. 

With  better  and  more  exact  knowledge  we  shall  need  a 
new  interpretation  of  our  faith,  but  the  new  interpretation 
will  be  as  much  the  result  of  historical  development  as  the 
present  is  the  outcome  of  the  past.  The  religion  of  the  fu- 
ture will  be  in  spirit  the  same  as  the  religion  of  the  past. 
Indeed,  if  we  take  mankind  as  a  whole  we  can  say  that  the 
religion  of  the  future  will  be  this  selfsame  religion  of  the 
past  with  such  corrections  or  alterations  as  the  present 
will  have  to  add  thereto. 

Religion  is  an  inalienable  part  of  man's  nature.  It  may 
be  changed  but  it  will  never  disappear,  and  the  changes 
that  take  place  at  present,  being  due  to  a  clearer  compre- 
hension of  truth,  should  cause  no  fear,  for  the  truth  can 
not  be  wrong;  whatever  the  truth  may  be,  let  the  truth 
prevail. 

\\'e  close  with  a  ([notation  from  the  apocryphal  book 
of  Esdras  (i  Esdras  iv.  38),  a  passage  which  would  have 
deserved  a  place  in  the  canon.     It  reads: 


l60  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

"As  for  the  truth,  it  endureth,  and  is  always  strong; 
it  Hveth  and  conquereth  for  evermore.  With  her  there 
is  no  accepting  of  persons  or  rewards ;  but  she  doeth  the 
things  that  are  just,  and  refraineth  from  all  unjust  and 
wicked  things;  and  all  men  do  well  like  of  her  works. 
Neither  in  her  judgment  is  any  unrighteousness;  and  she 
is  the  strength,  kingdom,  power,  and  majesty  of  all  ages. 
Blessed  be  the  God  of  Truth!" 


APPENDIX. 

TTTE  present  here  to  our  readers  the  controversy  which,  as  stated 
VV  in  the  introductory  paii^es  of  this  vokime,  was  the  occasion  of 
the  present  investigation  of  the  Samson  story.  It  appeared  partly 
in  Tlie  Open  Court,  partly  in  Tlic  Moiiisf,  and  consists  of  two  com- 
munications by  Mr.  George  W.  Shaw,  of  Geneseo,  Illinois,  and  one 
editorial  reply  by  the  author  of  this  book. 

MYTHOPGEIC  ERUDITION. 

BY    GEO.    \V.    SHAW. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  some  minds  to  resolve  history  into 
myth.  Those  who  indulge  it  are  not  half  educated  visionaries,  but 
generally  serious  thinkers  and  sometimes  profoundly  learned.  In 
the  crucibles  of  their  analysis  strange  compounds  appear.  Homer 
ceases  to  exist,  and  is  replaced  by  a  cycle  of  rhapsodists.  The  Tro- 
jan war  becomes  a  solar  myth.  William  Tell  did  not  fight  at  Mor- 
garten.  Stout  old  Judge  Samson  was  not  a  Jewish  Shophet,  but 
the  sun — his  hair,  the  sunbeams. 

"x\ll  is  illusion :  naught  is  truth." 

A  small  etymological  peg  will  suspend  one  theory.*  Some  myth 
of  a  former  age  or  remote  race  may  furnish  an  analogy  confirmatory 
of  another.  Having  by  their  methods  resolved  the  facts  of  history 
into  myths,  these  savants  are  at  one  confronted  with  the  question 
how  such  myths  originated.  Having  no  direct  evidence  of  facts 
which  probably  never  occurred,  but  are  confidently  assumed,  they 
are  left  to  conjecture  their  causes.  Imaginations  vary,  and  each 
inquirer  is  free  to  elaborate  his  own  hypothesis. 

"Raw  .\mericans  and  fanatical  women"  may  participate  in  such 
*  "jlSJ^J'i^  connects  with  "tt^"^.   Was  not  Samson  strong  like  Hercules  ?   Was 

not  Hercules  identical  with  the  Phoenician  Baal?  Ergo,  Samson  was  a  solar 
man,  i.  e.,  the  sun.  Saltatory  logic  indeed !  but  who  can  prevent  men  from 
arguing  thus  if  they  choose? 


l62  THE    STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

controversies,  but  do  not  begin  them.  They  originate  in  the  minds 
of  scholars  and  professors. 

The  most  amusing  display  of  futile  erudition  witnessed  by  the 
nineteenth  century  was  the  attempt  to  class  the  Trojan  war  among 
solar  myths.  It  had  for  its  champion  no  less  a  scholar  than  Max 
Miiller.  Nor  was  the  idea  relinquished  even  after  Schliemann  had 
brought  out  the  valuables  of  Priam's  Treasury,  and  shown  the  five 
scathed  walls  of  his  citadel. 

Wolfif's  theory  of  the  authorship  of  Homer  was  supported  by 
an  amount  of  learning  rarely  surpassed.  There  is  a  reason  for  these 
follies  of  the  wise.  Those  who  commit  them  apply  impracticable 
rules  of  evidence  at  first  and  end  in  a  maze  of  conjectures.  For  ex- 
ample let  the  rule  be  adopted  (as  it  sometimes  is),  that  no  fact  is 
to  be  accepted  unless  attested  by  an  observer.  Facts  of  recent  oc- 
currence can  often  be  thus  shown,  and  such  proof  is  of  the  highest 
order.  After  the  lapse  of  a  generation  such  evidence  is  unattain- 
able, but  the  written  statements  of  an  observer  may  remain.  A  few 
generations  more,  and  these  have  disappeared,  but  quotations  from 
them  may  remain.  A  time  comes  at  last  when  a  fact  can  neither  be 
shown  by  a  contemporary  author,  nor  from  one  who  has  ever  seen 
a  quotation  from  a  contemporary.  Let  the  fact  be  then  considered  as 
unattested  and  unworthy  of  serving  as  a  basis  of  any  conclusion.  It 
still  appears,  however,  that  men  have  believed  in  that  fact.  Why 
did  they  believe?  The  natural  conclusion  that  they  believed  in  the 
fact  because  it  was  a  fact  being  rejected,  and  a  more  satisfactory  ex- 
planation demanded,  any  conjectural  explanation  may  be  preserved. 
The  methods  adopted  are  parallel  with  those  of  the  Greek  authors 
who  sought  to  account  for  the  stories  of  gods  and  heroes.  There 
was  the  historical  theory  of  Euemerus:  the  gods  were  men  and 
women.  The  allegorical  method  was  favored  by  Plato  and  the  Neo- 
Platonists:  the  gods  were  human  qualities  personified. 

There  was  also  the  elemental  theory  of  Heraclides :  the  gods 
were  elements  or  heavenly  bodies. 

Our  modern  mythopoeic  academicians  incline  at  present  to  the 
latter  theory.  The  solar  myth  is  a  favorite  recourse.  Great  men 
have  to  encounter  enmities  and  opposition.  Comparison  of  such  a 
man  with  the  sun  struggling  with  thick  clouds,  now  bursting  forth 
in  brightness  and  anon  setting  in  gloom  presents  an  allegory  too 
obvious  to  be  ignored.  The  metaphor  hardens  into  a  theory ;  the 
theory  into  asserted  fact.  A  similar  process  resulting  in  the  pro- 
duction of  another  supposed  myth  gives  the  professor  of  the  "sci- 


APPENDIX.  163 

ence"  of  comparative  mythology  an  opportunity  of  discoursing  on 
the  general  prevalence  of  such  myths.  Some  clay  Washington  at 
Valley  Forge  may  furnish  fine  material  for  a  sun  myth.  It  is  an 
old  remark  that  unreasonable  skepticism  leads  to  absurd  credulity. 

I  do  not  object  to  wholesome  reserve  and  strict  scrutiny  of  his- 
torical evidence.  I  only  emphasize  the  necessity  of  investigation  un- 
fettered by  artificial  canons,  and  ready  to  avail  itself  of  any  source 
of  truth  without  disdain  of  hearsay  or  tradition.  Who  has  not  seen 
courts  of  law  so  restrained  by  rules  of  evidence  as  to  be  unable  to 
ascertain  material  facts  practically  known  by  all  present?  A  long 
credited  and  not  impossible  occurrence  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  myth- 
ical or  doubtful  because  we  do  not  know  the  evidence  on  which  it 
has  been  believed.  -There  may  have  been  abundant  evidence  now 
inaccessible. 

There  are  myths  partly  probable  and  partly  improbable ;  others 
which  consist  wholly  of  the  supernatural  and  improbable. 

The  former  may  have  a  substratum  of  fact ;  but  the  difficulty 
of  separating  the  real  from  the  imaginary  should  compel  us  to  re- 
linquish conjecture  and  insist  on  evidence.  The  latter  may  embody 
important  truths  deeply  disguised.  We  are  not  to  despair  even  of 
these,  but  to  look  for  light  in  every  direction.  The  myth  of  Belus 
as  it  appears  in  Diodorus,  is  an  illustration. 

Belus  was  a  son  of  Zeus  and  Lybia.  He  led  a  colony  from 
Egypt.  He  was  the  first  king  of  Babylon,  and  entertained  Zeus 
there.  His  name  was  that  by  which  the  Babylonians  called  Zeus. 
He  was  buried  in  Babylon,  and  the  Persians  destroyed  his  tomb 
which  the  Chaldeans  exhorted  Alexander  to  rebuild. 

Can  any  myth  be  more  inconsistent  and  absurd?  And  yet  it 
contains  much  latent  truth. 

Hammurabi,  the  first  powerful  king  of  Babylon,  built  a  great 
temple  to  Bel.  The  temples  of  the  old  Chaldean  gods  were  regarded 
as  their  tombs.  (See  Hilprecht,  Babylonia,  p.  459  ff.)  The  temple 
had  been  wholly  or  partially  destroyed  by  the  Persians,  and  the 
Babylonians  were  anxious  for  its  restoration. 

Perhaps  much  more  lies  concealed  in  this  myth,  and  may  some 
day  come  to  light. 

Myths  are  shattered  fragments  of  history  illumined  by  the 
moonlight  of  fancy  ;  but  we  praise  not  those  ancient  or  modern,  eru- 
dite or  illiterate,  who  reduce  history  to  ruins,  though  gleams  of  sun- 
shine may  disclose  the  former  outline. 

From  The  Open  Court,  XVIII  (Nov.  1904),  p.  687. 


164  THE    STORY   OF    SAMSON. 


HOW  HISTORY   IS  TRANSFIGURED  BY  MYTH. 

REPLY    BY   THE   AUTHOR. 

Mr.  George  W.  Shaw's  article  "Mythopoeic  Erudition"  char- 
acterizes the  tendency  of  modern  criticism  to  resolve  legendary 
traditions  and  poems  into  myth,  as  a  mental  disease  of  scholarly 
minds,  as  "follies  of  the  wise,"  and  I  take  pleasure  in  publishing  it 
because  it  is  thoroughly  opposed  to  my  own  views,  for  I,  too,  be- 
long to  the  class  of  people  censured  by  Mr.  Shaw  for  believing  that 
Homer  did  not  exist  and  is  to  be  "replaced  by  a  cycle  of  rhapsodists ; 
the  Trojan  war  is  a  solar  myth ;  William  Tell  did  not  fight  at  Mor- 
garten ;  stout  old  Judge  Samson  was  not  a  Jewish  Shophet,  but  the 
sun, — his  hair,  the  sunbeams."  My  motive  in  publishing  Mr.  Shaw's 
communication  is  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  principle  audiatnr 
et  altera  pars,  but  mainly  because  it  contains  a  germ  of  truth  which 
is  not  always,  but  frequently,  overlooked  by  scholars  of  critical  ten- 
dencies. 

When  Mr.  Shaw  characterizes  the  trend  of  modern  analysis  of 
history  by  the  device,  "All  is  illusion:  naught  is  truth,"  he  is  mis- 
taken, at  least  so  far  as  the  leading  scholars  in  the  domain  of  higher 
criticism  are  concerned.  Traditions,  be  they  ever  so  mythological,  if 
they  are  genuine  are  much  more  conservative  than  they  may  appear 
at  first  sight.  Though  the  Trojan  war  may  be  a  tangle  of  legends 
reflecting  the  solar  myth,  the  Homeric  narrative  is  after  all  based  on 
actual  occurrences.  Though  William  Tell  never  existed  in  Switzer- 
land, there  must  have  existed  many  William  Tells,  not  only  in 
Switzerland  but  all  over  the  world.  Though  the  Biblical  account 
of  Samson's  deeds,  like  the  twelve  labors  of  Heracles,  is  the  echo 
of  an  ancient  solar  epic  which  glorifies  the  deeds  of  Shamash  in  his 
migrations  through  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac,  there  may  have 
been  a  Hebrew  hero  whose  deeds  reminded  the  Israelites  of  Sha- 
mash, and  so  his  adventures  were  told  with  modifications  which 
naturally  made  the  solar  legends  cluster  about  his  personality. 

A  critical  investigation  into  history  teaches  us  that  the  actual 
facts  are  more  saturated  with  mythology  than  we  are  aware. 

Some  time  ago  we  republished  in  TJie  Open  Courf^  an  ingenious 

satire  of  M.  Peres,  who  proposed  the  proof  that  Napoleon  the  Great 

did  not  exist  but  was  simply  a  solar  myth,  and  M.  Peres's  style  is  a 

clever  imitation  of  the  arguments  employed  by  the  higher  critics 

*  "M.  Peres's  Proof  of  the  Non-Existence  of  Napoleon,"  July,  1903.  It 
has  been  incorporated  in  full  in  H.  R.  Evans's  little  book  The  Napoleon  Myth, 
Chicago :  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.,  1905. 


APrENDIX.  165 

under  whose  able  investigation  many  historical  figures  are  seen  to 
be  centers  for  mythical  accretions. 

Although  the  ancient  traditions  of  Rome,  of  Greece,  and  also 
of  Israel,  are  filled  with  legend,  it  is  remarkable  how  much  of  actual 
fact  is  recorded  in  them. 

Biblical  traditions  have  in  one  sense  been  fully  verified  by  the 
Babylonian  excavations.  They  show  that  occurrences  such  as  are 
recorded  in  them  actually  took  place,  but  the  statements  in  the  sev- 
eral books  of  the  Old  Testament  are  not  simply  narratives  of  the 
facts  but  stories  of  events  as  they  appeared  to  the  children  of  Israel 
at  the  time  when  they  were  written.  They  are  onesided  and  are 
not  historical  in  a  strict  sense  of  the  word ;  they  are  historical  only 
in  so  far  as  they  are  echoes  of  actual  events,  the  narrative  being 
modified  by  beliefs  of  their  authors. 

The  same  is  true  of  Troy  and  Homer.  The  word  Homer  means 
"arranger"  or  "compiler,!'  and  any  one  who  is  familiar  with  the 
Homeric  epics,  knows  that  the  several  songs  are  not  written  by  the 
same  hand.  They  are  two  great  compilations  and  we  must  assume 
that  the  ancient  rhapsodists  selected  with  preference  themes  more 
or  less  closely  related  to  the  Siege  of  Troy  and  the  adventures  of 
Odysseus.  They  may  have  composed  other  songs  which  are  now 
lost,  but  when  at  the  time  of  Pisistratus  the  Homeric  rhapsodies 
were  redacted  into  two  great  epics,  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  the 
most  obvious  discrepancies  were  removed  while  all  those  materials 
that  did  not  fall  in  with  the  general  plan  were  doomed  to  oblivion. 
Now  it  is  strange  that  the  excavations  of  Schliemann  seem  to  verify 
the  Homeric  stories,  for  Schliemann  discovered  ancient  ornaments 
and  weapons  such  as  are  described  in  Homer,  and  believers  in  the 
letter  of  Homer  rejoiced  at  the  fact  and  declared  triumphantly  that, 
after  all,  Homer  must  be  believed  in  ;  but,  unfortunately  for  these 
enthusiasts,  Schliemann's  excavations  prove  too  much,  for  he  ex- 
cavated not  only  one  city  of  Troy,  but  several  cities  which  are  built 
one  upon  the  top  of  the  other,  proving  that  the  siege  of  Troy  and  the 
conquest  and  burning  of  the  city,  had  not  taken  place  once  but  several 
times ;  and  so  we  see  that  history  must  have  repeated  itself,  and  the 
mythology  that  overlies  the  tradition  of  one  tale  may  have  suited 
all  others  of  the  same  kind.  If  a  myth  embodies  a  general  truth, 
the  myth  will  find  verification  in  history  whenever  events  of  the  same 
kind  happen,  not  once  but  repeatedly,  for  the  myth  stands  for  the 
type  and  the  type  is  realized  in  everv  concrete  instance. 

Events  repeat  themselves,  and  these  very  repetitions  are  mostly 


l66  THE    STORY   OF    SAMSON. 

incorporated  in  myths.  As  wild  animals  use  the  same  trick  in  catch- 
ing their  prey,  and  these  victims  try  the  same  methods  of  dodging 
their  enemies,  so  men,  being  endowed  with  a  definite  psychological 
organism,  will  naturally  act  in  a  typical  way.  Under  similar  con- 
ditions their  sentiments,  their  words,  their  actions  will  be  similar. 
We  read,  for  instance,  in  the  reports  of  the  Revolutionary  War  that 
Nathan  Hale  exclaimed  when  led  to  execution:  "What  a  pity  that 
I  have  only  one  life  to  sacrifice  for  my  country!"  With  a  similar 
enthusiasm  Katte,  a  companion  of  Prince  Frederick  of  Prussia  (later 
on  called  "the  Great")  cried  at  the  moment  of  execution  which  he 
sufifered  for  the  sake  of  his  royal  friend,  "And  if  I  had  a  thousand 
lives  I  would  gladly  give  them  up  for  you !"  The  same  sentiment 
ensouled  the  Japanese  hero  Masashige,  when  he  declared  at  the 
moment  of  death,  "I  pray  that  I  may  be  born  seven  times  to  die 
for  my  imperial  house" ;  and  he  found  a  follower  in  Commander 
Hirose  whose  last  poem  written  shortly  before  he  died  a  hero's 
death,  begins  with  the  line, 

"Yea,  seven  lives  for  my  loved  land." 

These  coincidences  are  natural  and  can  easily  be  multiplied. 
We  read,  for  instance,  in  an  article  by  Gen.  M.  M.  Trumbull  on 
"The  Value  of  Doubt  in  the  Study  of  History"  {The  Open  Court, 
1888,  I,  716)  : 

"Some  time  ago  there  was  a  noted  Indian  chief  in  the  Western 
country,  by  the  name  of  Spotted  Tail — he  is  now,  fortunately,  in 
the  happy  hunting  grounds — who  was  engaged  in  controversy  with 
the  United  States  Government,  about  his  reservation,  or  rations,  or 
something ;  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  sent  word  to  him  to 
come  to  Washington,  and  present  his  complaint  in  person.  To  this 
invitation  the  noble  son  of  the  forest  replied,  that  if  he  needed 
something  of  the  Secretary  he  would  go  to  him ;  if  the  Secretary 
wished  anything  of  him,  let  him  come  to  him.  C?esar  tells  us  in  his 
Commentaries,  that  on  a  certain  occasion  he  sent  to  Ariovistus, 
King  of  the  Germans,  and  requested  an  interview  with  him.  Ario- 
vistus returned  this  answer,  "Si  quid  ipsi  a  Csesare  opus  esset,  sese 
ad  eum  venturum  fuisse ;  si  quid  ille  se  velit,  ilium  ad  se  venire 
oportere."  which  is  the  very  same  answer  that  Spotted  Tail  sent  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  A  newspaper  critic  in  New  York 
thereupon  accused  Spotted  Tail  of  plagiarizing  from  the  speech  of 
Ariovistus." 

While  typical  instances  occur  independently  in  the  same  way, 


APPENDIX.  107 

we  know  also  that  if  an  example  is  once  set  others  will  imitate  it, 
and  so  it  will  be  repeated,  as  was  the  case  with  commander  Hirose, 
who  followed  Masashige.  A  striking  instance  of  how  a  religious 
idea  as  incorporated  in  a  myth  will  influence  the  action  of  real  men 
is  referred  to  on  page  137  in  the  present  book  of  The  Story  of  Sam- 
son, in  the  case  of  Hamilcar  who  sacrifices  his  life  as  a  holocaust 
because  his  god  Baal  had  done  the  same,  and  even  if  a  hero  does 
not  imitate  his  tutelary  gods  the  people  will  attribute  to  him  deeds 
of  his  god. 

A  little  psychological  insight  into  the  constitution  of  the  human 
mind  will  best  explain  the  situation.  Every  occurrence  which  we 
experience  is  at  once  co-related  to  and  associated  with  former  ex- 
periences and  both  are  so  fused  that  an  unsophisticated  person  can 
not  easily  separate  the  facts  from  the  opinions  which  we  hold  as  to 
their  nature.  Thus  myth  creeps  into  history  and  miracles  are  com- 
mon events  to  those  who  believe  in  the  miraculous. 

When  Napoleon  rose  into  power  his  heroic  dash  and  his  (|uick 
success  dazzled  the  minds  of  his  countrymen,  and  he  was  naturally 
compared  now  to  Alexander  the  Great,  now  to  Caesar,  or  even  to 
the  gods.  The  fate  of  former  conquerors  became,  as  it  were,  a 
prophecy  for  his  career.  He  himself  was  induced  to  imitate  his 
predecessors,  and  his  admirers  did  not  hesitate  to  see  him  in  the 
light  of  a  mythical  hero.  Thus  it  was  but  an  inevitable  result  that 
many  incidents  were  attributed  to  him  simply  because  thev  belong 
to  the  same  type  of  heroes,  mythical  as  well  as  historical,  with  whom 
he  had  been  classified. 

Troy  was  situated  in  the  north-western  corner  of  Asia  Minor 
in  a  place  favorable  in  the  old  times  for  the  development  of  a  large 
city.  It  ofifered  excellent  opportunities  for  the  exchange  of  goods 
that  came  from  both  the  East  and  the  West, — from  the  interior  of 
Asia  and  from  Europe.  The  coast  was  hospitable  for  such  ships  as 
were  built  in  those  days,  but  the  advantages  were  counterbalanced 
by  the  disadvantages  which  exposed  the  city  to  hostile  attacks,  and 
so  the  place  became  unsafe  on  account  of  its  wealth,  proving  an  at- 
traction to  pirates.  Homer  tells  us  the  history  of  the  capture  of  Troy 
not  as  it  really  happened,  but  as  it  lived  in  the  memory  of  the  Greek 
nation  between  the  ninth  and  fifth  centuries  B.  C.  It  seems  a  hope- 
less task  to  extract  from  the  Iliad  the  historical  facts  that  underlie 
the  story  which  in  spite  of  its  historical  background  is  a  tangle  of 
myth  and  legend.  There  can  be  no  doubt  about  it  that  Helen  is  a 
humanized  form  of  Selene,  the  moon ;  but  for  all  that,  some  mortal 


l68  THE   STORY    OF   SAMSON. 

woman  named  Helen  may  have  been  the  cause  of  a  war  between 
Greece  and  Troy !  Odysseus  is  the  sun  in  his  migration,  who  en- 
counters innumerable  adventures  and  descends  into  the  underworld, 
whence  he  returns  unscathed  to  the  domain  of  the  living ;  yet  there 
may  have  lived  an  adventurous  chief  of  Ithaca,  named  Odysseus, 
who  roamed  all  over  the  world  and  came  home  after  an  absence  of 
twenty  }-ears,  an  unknown  beggar. 

It  is  not  uncommon  that  the  same  divinity  becomes  differen- 
tiated in  the  course  of  time  in  the  different  roles  which  he  assumes 
and  the  different  ways  in  which  he  is  represented.  Thus  the  same 
festival  of  the  dying  and  resurrected  god  translated  into  Christian 
life  becomes  in  church  ritual  an  Easter  mass ;  in  church  customs, 
the  mystery  play ;  and  in  popular  life,  the  carnival  with  its  rollicking 
spirit.  Their  common  origin  is  scarcely  recognizable  when  we  see 
these  three  differentiated  forms  which  they  have  assumed  in  the 
course  of  time.  Shamash  has  become  the  god  of  justice  and  also 
the  roaming  adventurer.  We  here  reproduce  the  two  best  known 
moniunents  in  which  Shamash  is  worthily  represented  by  Babylonian 
artists.  Though  Izdubar  as  well  as  Heracles,  Samson,  and  kindred 
figures  are  different  in  character  from  the  dignified  god  of  justice, 
we  know,  after  all,  that  both  conceptions,  the  sun-god  as  judge 
and  the  sun-god  as  a  wandering  hero  have  been  differentiated  from 
one  and  the  same  divinity. 

As  to  Tell,  we  have  to  state  that  no  family  of  that  name  can  be 
traced  in  Switzerland  at  or  before  the  time  of  the  Swiss  struggle 
for  independence,  and  the  story  of  Tell's  famous  shot  at  the  apple 
on  the  head  of  his  child  is  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  a  chronicle 
written  in  1470.  i.  e.,  about  two  centuries  after  the  alleged  occur- 
rence.* But  while  there  is  no  foundation  in  Swiss  history  for  the 
tale  of  Tell,  we  are  familiar  with  similar  stories  among  the  Norse, 
the  Danes,  and  the  Saxons.f  We  can  scarcely  doubt  that  the  legend 
is  a  last  reminiscence  of  human  sacrifices  which,  with  the  progress 
of  civilization,  were  gradually  abolished,  and  one  form  in  which  the 
abolition  of  human  sacrifices  was  effected  consisted  in  a  ritual  ac- 

*  In  the  so-called  Weissc  BucJi  of  the  Archives  of  Obwalden,  1470;  and  in 
the  Chronik  of  Melchior  Russ,  1482.  There  is  further  a  Tell-ballad,  and 
finally  in  Tschudi's  Chronicon  Hclvcticum,  from  which  latter  the  story  was 
utilized  by  Schiller  in  his  famous  drama. 

t  Saxo  Grammaticus  tells  the  Tell  story  of  "Toko,"  the  Edda  of  "Egil," 
and  an  old  English  ballad  of  "William  of  Cloudeslay."  It  would  lead  me  too 
far  to  exhaust  the  subject,  but  a  traveler's  report  even  of  distant  Arabia  gives 
us  information  of  a  custom  in  which  a  person  is  offered  as  a  sacrifice,  until 
a  skilled  marksman  liberates  the  victim  after  the  fashion  of  Tell's  shot. 


APPENDIX, 


169 


SHAMASH,  THE  SUN-GOD,  ENTHRONED  IN  HIS  HOLY  OF  HOLIES. 


I/O 


THE    STORY    OF   SAMSON. 


cording  to  which  the  victim  was  consecrated  to  death  but  was  given 
a  chance  of  escape  through  the  heroism  or  skill  of  a  voluntary  sa- 
viour. 


HAMMURABI    BEFORE   SHAMASH,    THE   GOD   OF   LAW. 

While  we  positively  know  that  Tell  is  not  an  ancient  Swiss 
name  we  may  boldly  say  that  the  stories  of  Tell  did  not,  but  might 
as  well  have  happened  as  not,  for  history  repeats  itself  and  wherever 


APPENDIX.  171 

there  is  oppression,  there  we  meet  with  characters  such  as  Tell,  who 
oppose  a  tyrant's  violence. 

Although  the  personality  of  Tell  is  an  invention,  Tell  is  not 
pure  fancy,  for  in  the  character  of  the  hero  the  spirit  of  independence 
which  animated  the  Swiss  found  an  appropriate  and  true  personi- 
fication ;  but  the  myth-makin"-  instinct  of  man  is  very  strong  and 
sometimes  invents  legends  where  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason 
for  their  existence.  As  an  instance  of  this  I  will  relate  the  following 
story  which  if  not  reliable  in  all  its  details  is  at  least  ben  trovato. 

A  New  England  farmer  of  colonial  days  once  found  in  a  quarry 
situated  on  his  land  a  peculiarly  beautiful  stone  of  pyramidal  shape, 
and  following  an  artistic  instinct  put  it  up  at  the  crossroad  in  front 
of  his  gate.  But  he  soon  regretted  it  when  he  was  inconvenienced 
the  whole  da}'  by  people  who  stopped  at  the  house  and  asked  in 
whose  honor  the  monument  had  been  erected.  The  first  enquirers 
were  treated  politely  and  with  a  laugh.  But  when  every  wagon 
that  passed  by  stopped  and  he  had  to  answer  the  same  question 
over  and  over  again  he  became  enraged  and  at  last  went  out  to 
the  crossroads  and  wrote  in  large  letters  on  the  stone  the  answer 
to  every  enquiry,  "Nothing  particular  lies  imder  this  stone."  He 
hoped  this  would  stop  all  further  annoyance  but  he  had  only  poured 
oil  on  the  fire,  for  the  local  newspaper  published  a  short  item  in  one 
of  its  issues  that  ]\Ir.  N  N,  whose  farm  was  situated  at  the  cross- 
roads, had  appropriately  set  up  a  monument  to  the  famous  old 
chieftain  Nothing  Particular.  Upon  further  inquiry  the  same  paper 
was  found  to  contain  more  information  concerning  this  valiant 
chief.  Among  other  interesting  details  it  explained  that  the  hero's 
Indian  name  was  not  known,  but  he  was  called  Nothing  Particular 
by  the  settlers  because  of  an  interesting  incident.  It  seems  that 
he  passed  a  farm  one  day  and  found  the  maid  carrying  milk  in  a 
covered  pail.  Being  hungry  and  thirsty  he  asked  what  she  carried 
there,  and  she  answered.  "Nothing  particular."  Having  refreshed 
himself  on  the  milk  he  habitually  asked  at  the  farms  for  "nothing 
particular"  and  so  was  soon  known  by  this  peculiar  name. 

Our  farmer  was  now  more  overwhelmed  with  questions  than 
ever,  \\diole  parties  came  from  distant  counties  to  see  the  tomb 
of  Nothing  Particular,  and  the  innocent  originator  of  this  Indian 
legend  was  now  so  embittered  that  he  broke  the  stone  and  threw 
it  back  into  the  quarry  from  which  it  had  been  taken.  The  condem- 
nation of  the  population  was  general,  and  the  incident  closed  with  an 


172  THE   STORY   OF   SAMSON. 

article  that  appeared  in  the  local  Gazette  under  the  caption  "An  Act 
of  A'andalism." 

The  incident  was  closed  for  our  farmer  but  not  for  history,  for 
a  century  afterward  a  poetical  student  and  a  collector  of  folklore 
legends  when  looking  over  the  old  files  of  newspapers,  happened  to 
come  across  the  little  article  written  in  condemnation  of  the  van- 
dalism of  our  farmer.  He  went  to  the  spot,  found  the  stone,  made 
a  report  to  a  little  circle  of  his  friends,  founded  a  folklore  society, 
collected  money  for  the  restoration  of  ancient  monuments,  and  had 
the  stone  replaced  at  the  crossroads  where  it  had  been  a  hundred 
years  before.    There  the  monument  still  stands,  at  least  so  I  am  told. 

While  legends  may  be  woven  of  the  flimsiest  stuff  we  must  be- 
ware lest  we  condemn  the  story  of  an  extraordinary  event  simply 
because  it  seems  to  reflect  mythical  incidents.  Life  is  cast  in  definite 
molds  determined  by  the  eternal  laws  of  the  universe  as  well  as  the 
psychic  constitution  of  mankind.  We  will  select  a  most  striking 
instance  from  contemporary  history.  Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway  in 
discussing  the  situation  in  France  with  reference  to  the  Dreyfus  trial, 
is  struck  with  its  many  features  which  might  indicate  a  symbolical 
meaning,  and  so  he  writes  not  without  an  irony  which  w'ill  un- 
doubtedly be  appreciated  by  Mr.  Shaw  :* 

"Were  the  Dreyfus  story  translated  from  a  newly-found  papyrus 
I  might  at  this  moment  be  writing  an  essay  to  prove  it  a  sun-and- 
storm  myth.  The  Mithraic  three-footed  Sun  (Drei-fusf),  obscured 
by  the  Eastern  Haze  (Ester-hazy),  and  held  in  prison  by  the  Ahri- 
manic  'two-footed  serpent  of  lies'  (Du  Paty  =  deux  pattes),  on  the 
Devil's  Island,  [situated  in  the  distant  west],  is  liberated  at  cock- 
crow (Galli-fete)  on  the  eve  of  the  autumnal  equinox.  What  could 
be  clearer?  Of  course  I  should  merely  smile  at  any  scholars  credu- 
lous enough  to  suppose  that  anything  so  impossible  as  the  Dreyfus 
case  could  actually  occur." 

Mankind  will  always  interpret  the  facts  of  life  in  the  light  of 
their  convictions  and  beliefs.  Wherever  a  great  personality  rises 
into  prominence  stories  will  be  told  of  him  w^hich  may  have  happened 
to  characters  of  the  same  type  of  bygone  ages.  This  is  the  reason 
why  the  same  anecdotes  are  told  of  Caesar,  of  Charlemagne,  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  and  of  Grant,  and  they  will  be  told  of  great  generals 
of  the  ages  to  come. 

*  See  Mr.   Conway's  article  "The  Idol  and  the  Ideal  of  the  French  Re- 
public," The  Open  Court,  1900,  Vol.  XIV,  pp.  13-14. 

t  The  tripod  of  Pythia  in  Delphi  is  sacred  to  Apollo. 


APPENDIX. 


/6 


In  our  religious  literature  we  find  the  same  mixture  of  fact 
and  fancy.  There  is  more  historical  truth  in  the  history  of  Buddha, 
of  Jesus,  and  of  Muhammed  than  may  appear  at  first  sight,  judging 
from  the  miraculous  adornments  of  all  religious  tradition.  As  ivy 
quickly  covers  an  old  tree,  the  mythological  accretions  almost  con- 
ceal the  real  facts  of  the  lives  of  religious  leaders.  We  can  be  sure 
that  Jesus,  Gautama  Siddhartha,  and  Mohammed  were  real  persons, 
but  the  people  who  look  upon  them  in  faith  co-relate  the  acts  related 
of  them  with  their  highest  religious  ideals  of  the  Christ,  the  Buddha, 
and  of  the  Prophet.  The  Christian  Gospels  are  not  simply  narra- 
tives of  the  life  of  Jesus  but  they  are  the  story  of  Jesus  as  the  Christ, 
embodying  ancient  traditions  not  only  of  the  Jewish  notion  of  a 
Messiah  but  many  other  kindred  hopes  ;  they  echo  the  expectations 
of  the  people  who  were  prepared  for  the  coming  of  a  Saviour.  The 
Christ  ideal  existed  before  Jesus.  The  Jewish  Messiah  conception 
had  been  modified  and  deepened  by  the  Persian  doctrine  of  Mithra, 
the  virgin-born  viceroy  of  God's  kingdom  on  earth,  the  Babylonian 
Marduk,  the  Conqueror  of  Death  and  mediator  between  God  the 
Father,  and  men,  and  also  the  world-resigning  Buddha  of  India. 
When  Jesus  was  accepted  by  His  disciples  as  the  Messiah,  the  Christ, 
all  the  most  important  notions  and  honors  of  previous  kindred  fig- 
ures in  the  domain  of  both  history  and  mythology  were  transferred 
upon  and  attributed  to  the  great  Galilean. 

The  picture  of  Jesus  in  the  New  Testament  is  not  strictly  his- 
torical, but  it  contains  historical  facts.  It  is  the  story  of  Jesus,  the 
Nazarene,  as  interpreted  by  those  who  believed  that  he  was  the 
Christ. 

p.  c. 

From  The  Open  Court,  XVIII  (Nov.,  1904,)  p.  690,  with  additions. 


SHEMESH  AND  SAMSON. 

BY    GEO.    W.    SHAW. 

History  may  be,  and  often  is,  accompanied  by  myths.  The  ob- 
ject of  the  historian  who  aims  at  truth  is  to  free  facts  from  their 
mythical  associates.     This  process  is  analytic. 

Myths  are  seldom  unassociated  with  history.  To  determine 
how  much  of  a  story,  mainly  mythical,  is  true,  is  a  process  of  a  more 
synthetic  character.  It  produces  new  truth  which  lay  hidden  in  rub- 
bish of  error,  and  even  finds  value  in  the  rubbish. 


174  THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 

The  first  process  is  destructive,  and.  unless  conducted  with  the 
utmost  care,  may  lead  to  negation  of  facts.  The  second  process  is 
constructive,  but  unless  wisely  carried  on  leads  to  the  formation 
of  rash  theories.  Both  these  methods  are  applied  to  ancient  history. 
The  first  and  easiest  has  had  its  day  of  prevalence :  The  second  and 
higher  should  succeed  it.  If  1  rightly  apprehend  the  drift  of  archaeo- 
logical thought,  thinkers  are  becoming  more  anxious  to  find  history 
in  myths,  than  to  detect  myths  in  history. 

In  the  kind  notice  of  my  article  on  mythopoeic  erudition  which 
the  Editor  has  inserted,  I  think  I  see  more  evidence  of  the  first 
method  of  thought  than  of  the  second. 

I  am  far  from  denying  the  important  part  which  myths  play  in 
Trojan  or  Hebrew  history.  The  godlike  heroes  of  the  Iliad,  if 
shown  in  historical  costume,  would  not  excite  our  wonder.  They  are 
scarcely  more  exaggerated,  however,  than  Godfrey  and  his  knights 
in  the  immortal  poem  of  Tasso ;  and  I  can  see  no  more  reason  to 
doubt  the  Siege  of  Troy  than  that  of  Jerusalem ;  or  that  the  world's 
unrivaled  poet  gave  a  correct  outline  of  facts  occurring  on  the  shores 
of  the  Hellespont. 

I  will  not,  however,  enter  here  into  a  vindication  of  the  per- 
sonality of  Homer  or  the  unity  of  his  poems,  or  of  the  truth  of  the 
tradition  of  Tell.  I  believe  scholars  are  returning  to  their  allegiance 
to  both  Homer  and  Tell. 

But  I  will  discuss  for  a  moment  the  view  of  the  Editor  as  to 
"Judge  Samson,"  for  the  double  reason  that  I  believe  it  to  be  the 
prevalent  opinion  of  scholars,  and  am  confident  that  it  is  erroneous. 
That  view  is  thus  expressed : 

"Though  the  Bible  account  of  Samson's  deeds,  like  the  twelve 
labors  of  Hercules,  is  the  echo  of  an  ancient  solar  epic  which  glori- 
fies the  deeds  of  Shamash,  in  his  migrations  through  the  twelve 
signs  of  the  zodiac,  there  may  have  been  a  Hebrew  hero,  whose  deeds 
reminded  the  Israelites  of  Shamash,  and  so  his  adventures  were  told 
with  such  modifications  which  naturally  made  the  solar  legends 
cluster  about  his  personality." 

I  contend  that  there  not  only  may  have  been,  but  actually  was, 
a  magistrate  of  that  name,  and  that  neither  his  name,  nor  character, 
nor  deeds,  had  any  connection  with  the  Babylonian  Shamash,  or  any 
tendency  to  remind  any  one  of  him.  Samson's  appearance  in  the  list 
of  Shophets  is  prima  facie  evidence  of  his  existence  as  a  man.  The 
verb  shamash,  "to  serve,"  only  occurs  once  in  the  Bible.  In  Dan. 
vii.  lo  it  is  met  with  in  the  Pihel  or  intensive  form,  denoting  vig- 


APPENDIX.  175 

orous  or  persistent  service.  The  segholate  noun  shemesh  derived 
from  this  form  denotes  a  powerful  and  unwearied  servant,  and  its 
derivative  shiinsJwii  would  naturally  mean  powerful.  This  meaning 
is  especially  attested  by  Josephus.  That  great  master  of  both  He- 
brew and  Greek  translated  the  word  by  iaxvpo'i,  a  word  connected 
with  laxM,  and  old  form  of  ex^,  and  denoting  a  vigor  that  holds — is 
enduring.  The  adjective  probably  refers  to  the  vigor  of  a  stout 
serving  man.     It  is  analogous  to  the  English  "burley"="boorlike." 

Gesenius  failed  to  perceive  the  logical  sequence  of  ideas,  and 
pronounced  the  translation  of  Josephus  "ohne  sprachlichen  Anhalt." 
This  flippant  remark  of  a  learned  professor  has  been  too  successful 
in  introducing  error  into  Hebrew  lexicons,  where  Samson  appears 
as  a  solar  man. 

Relying  on  the  much  higher  authority  of  Josephus,  I  say  that 
he  was  not  a  solar  man  at  all  but  simply  a  strong  man. 

Other  Hebrews  of  that  time  received  their  names,  or  rather 
titles,  from  their  qualities  or  actions — Gideon  was  the  slasher,  the 
sabrieur — Deborah  the  queen  bee — Barak  lightning — Jephthah  the 
deliverer — Samson  the  strong. 

Turn  we  now  to  the  Chaldean  god  Samas ;  or  as  he  is  named  in 
the  Bible,  Shemesh.  He  was  once  a  newer  and  inferior  deity.  He 
was  the  son  (perhaps  the  daughter)  of  the  moon-god  Sin — a  con- 
firmation of  Bachofen's  contention  that  the  worship  of  the  moon  is 
older  than  that  of  the  sun.  He  was  a  servant.  In  an  old  Accadian 
hymn  translated  by  Lenormant,  he  is  styled  the  servant  of  Anu  and 
Bel,  The  word  "servant"  applied  to  the  god  came  to  designate  the 
sun  itself.  Shemesh  grew  in  importance.  Great  temples  were  built 
to  him  at  Larsa  and  Sippara.  The  former  was  seven  hundred  years 
old  in  the  time  of  Hammurabi,  and  was  renewed  by  that  king.  The 
representation  of  him  found  there  by  Rassam  shows  a  venerable 
sovereign  with  a  long  beard  and  a  solar  disk  before  him,  in  front  of 
which  stand  several  worshipers.  He  became  the  god  of  legislation 
and  jurisprudence.  In  Hammurabi's  time  judges  sat  in  his  temple, 
and  their  decrees  were  recorded.  Hammurabi  himself  is  represented 
as  receiving  from  him  the  stone  tablet  on  which  is  inscribed  the  great 
code. 

Shemesh  is  styled  in  some  inscriptions  the  "Judge  of  Heaven 
and  Earth,"  the  "Ruler  of  the  World,"  the  "Greatest  of  the  Gods." 

He  mingles  the  attributes  01  two  Greek  deities  who,  though 
generally  clearly  distinguished,  were  sometimes  confounded — Helios 
and  Apollo.     Like  Helios  his  name  was  identical  with  that  of  the 


176  THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 

sun.  Like  him  he  opened  the  door  of  the  shining  heavens,  and  tra- 
versed the  upper  and  lower  worlds. 

But  he  resembles  Apollo  more.  Apollo,  like  him,  was  a  servant, 
but  became  a  god  of  legislation,  and  gave  the  sanction  of  his  oracle 
to  the  laws  of  Lycurgus.  Apollo  rose  in  the  Hellenic  mind  to  a  po- 
sition almost  equal  to  that  of  Zeus  himself.  Shemesh  lacked  the 
celestial  beauty  and  grace  of  the  god  of  literature,  of  music,  and  of 
song,  but  appears  in  the  more  imposing  attitude  of  the  judge  of  all 
mankind,  rewarding  virtue  and  punishing  vice. 

Apollo  was  not  without  that  function,  but  it  was  not  so  prom- 
inent as  in  the  case  of  Shemesh. 

What  is  there  in  the  character  or  acts  of  Samson  to  call  to  mind 
the  great  and  venerable  god  of  truth  and  justice?  He  was  a  shophet 
or  regulator,  and  his  duties  embraced  those  of  a  judicial  character 
with  other  duties.  In  this  he  did  not  differ  from  the  other  shophets, 
nor  is  there  any  indication  that  he  excelled  any  other  person  of  his 
class  in  any  department  of  his  duty.  His  prominent  characteristic 
was  his  prodigious  strength.  As  Shere  Afghan  encountered  and 
slew  bare-handed  a  royal  Bengal  tiger,  so  he  could  rend  a  lion.  As 
Wallace  stalked  through  bands  of  English  soldiery,  'striking  down 
a  man  at  every  blow,  so  he  could  pierce  a  hostile  array  of  Philistines ; 
but  he  shows  no  sign  of  superior  intelligence.  His  main  trait  was 
an  irresistible  penchant  for  the  daughters  of  the  Philistines.  Pie  was 
simply  a  stout,  sensual  man,  with  some  humor  and  shrewdness,  but 
of  small  mental  calibre. 

To  a  worshiper  of  Shemesh  it  would  have  seemed  gross  impiety 
to  compare  such  a  man  with  the  great  god  of  truth  and  justice.  A 
Jew  admiring  a  hero  would  not  have  compared  him  to  a  heathen 
divinity. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  near  the  scene  of  Samson's  career 
was  Beth  Shemesh,  a  name  denoting  the  site  of  a  sanctuary  of  the 
god.  However  that  may  have  been,  the  worship  of  Shemesh  had 
ceased  there  in  the  time  of  the  Judges,  for  we  find  the  Bethshemites 
receiving  the  ark  with  joy  and  sacrifices  on  its  return  from  captiv- 
ity,    (i  Sam.  vi.  13.) 

That  mythical  elements  and  exaggeration  occur  in  the  story  of 
Samson  is  not  denied. 

It  contains  a  striking  instance  of  the  superstition,  wide  spread 
among  primitive  men,  that  your  enemy  acquires  a  fatal  influence  over 
you  by  obtaining  some  of  your  hair.  Samson's  power  of  resistance 
vanishes  when  he  is  shorn. 


APPENDIX.  177 

The  mythical  and  exaggerated  portions  of  the  narrative,  how- 
ever, bear  no  impress  of  solarism  nor  of  Shemesh,  who  had  ceased 
to  be  a  mere  sun-god  and  become,  Hke  Apollo,  a  distinct  person, 
many  centuries  before  the  period  of  the  Judges. 

We  have  in  Samson  an  historical  man — a  valiant  though  unwise 
and  unsuccessful  champion  of  his  people. 

From  The  Monist,  Jan.,  1907. 


INDEX. 


Abraham's    Oak,    49,    51;    theophany 

at  IMamre,  65. 
Adonis,  95,   155. 
/lilneas,  93. 
Ahura  Mazda,  133. 
Ain-Shems,  40. 
Akkadians,  ^2. 
Alexamenos,    103. 

Alexander,  167;  Romance  of,  8-12. 
Aphrodite,   Suicide  of,  95. 
Apollo,    95 ;    "he    of    unshorn    hair," 

109. 
Arabia,  breeding-place  of  nations,  'j:^- 
Arad-Ea,  129, 
Ariovistus,   166. 
Aryans,  25. 
Ascalon,  43  ff. 
Asceticism,   159. 
Ass,  Christ  riding  an,  106;  Jaw-bone 

of  an,  96,  Mass  in  honor  of,   106; 

sacred   to   Dionysus,    105 ;    sacrifice 

in   Egypt,    104;   worshipped  by  the 

Jews,    104,    105. 
Ass-headed,    Yahveh    spoken    of    as, 

102,  104. 
Astarte,   Death  of,  95. 
Atonement,   142. 

Baal  Melkarth,  137. 

Babylonian  captivity,  15. 

Balaam's  ass,   102. 

Baptism  by  sprinkling,  69. 

Barbarossa,  12. 

Baur,  Dr.  Gustav,   13. 

Bee,  and  lion,  90;   in  mouth  of  lion, 

91  ;  in  the  body  of  the  lion,  76. 
Beelzebub   and   Beelzebul,   36. 


Bel  Merodach,  98. 

Belus,   163. 

Berosos,  29,   141. 

Beth  Hanina,  39. 

Beth  Shemesh,  place  of  sun  worship, 
38;   pre-Israelitic,  24. 

Biblical  traditions  verified  but  one- 
sided, 165. 

Blood,  Shedding  of,  142. 

Buddha,  Characteristic  marks  cf  the, 
138. 

C?esar,  166,  167. 

Carnivals,   146. 

Cenotaphs,  151. 

Charon,    129. 

Cherethites  probably  Cretans,  25. 

Christ,   a    servant,    140;    forsaken   by 

God,    142 ;    Mithras    analogous    to, 

123 ;  riding  an  ass,  106 ;  Samson  a 

prototype  of,   134,   147. 
Christianity,  Paganism  superseded  by, 

159- 
Chrysostom,   St.,    133. 
Circumcision,  64. 
Constantine,    146. 
Conway,  Moncure  D,   172. 
Cretans,   Cherethites  probably,  25. 
Curtiss,  Samuel  Ives,  55,  56. 
Cyrus,  16. 

Dagan.     See  Dagon. 

Dagon,  24;  a  god  of  agriculture,  31  ; 
and  Odakon,  31;  Babylonian,  26; 
Canaanitish,  24-25 ;  derived  from 
dagan,  "wheat,"  32-34;  not  derived 
from  dag,  "fish,"  26;  Yahveh  is 
stronger  than,  26-29. 


i8o 


THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 


Dan,  means  "judge,"  24;  Paganism 
of,  20  ff. ;  Site  of  (Illus.),  22. 

Darius,   102. 

Date  of  Samson  epic,  18. 

Daud,  Neby,  56. 

Delilah,  82  ff.,  140;  Meaning  of,  no; 
Web  of,  2,  84,  108. 

Delitzsch,  62. 

Deluge,    127. 

Deuteronomy,   14. 

Devotion  of  pagans,  150. 

Dido,  Death  of,  93  ff. 

Dio  Chrysostom,   136. 

Diodorus,  108. 

Dionysus,  35. 

Dore,  Gustave,   145,  146. 

Dragon  and  the  lion,  117. 

Dreyfus,  if2. 

Dying  god,  137. 

Eabani,  126,  129. 

Easter  ritual,   146. 

Eating  the  god,  142  ff. 

Ebers,  Georg,  47. 

El  Shaddaj,  62. 

Elijah,  63. 

Elohim,  62. 

Elysium,  129  n. 

Encyclopwdia  Biblica,  13,  43. 

En  Nagara,  Village  of,  69,  71. 

Endor,  Witch  of,  153. 

Enhaqqore,  45,  81  ;   Meaning  of,   102. 

Epictetus,   132. 

Epping  and   Strassmaier,   126. 

Es-Sarar,  39. 

Eshtaol,  40,  41,  88. 

Etam,  The  cliff,  45,  79. 

Eusebius,  18,  30. 

Evans,  H.  R.,  i,  3,  45,  164  n. 

Ezekiel,  16,  62. 

Ezra,  16. 

Falchion  or  sickle-sword,  98. 

Firmicus,  146. 

Fish  deities,  29;  IcJithys,  36;  Sacra- 
ment, 29;   Symbol  of  the,  34. 

Foxes,  Roman  custom  of  chasing,  92 ; 
Three  hundred,  78. 

Frazer,  J.  G.     58,  141. 

Frederick  the  Great,  12. 


Gaza,  45  ff.' ;  Gates  of,  81  f.,  107. 
Gibraltar,  Name  of,   108. 
Gilgamesh,  24  n. 
God  of  truth,  158. 
Gospel  writers,  138. 
Gossamer,  2,  109. 
Grape,   Nazir,  67. 
Gypsies,  Israelites  like,  72)- 

Hair,  Cutting  the,  68;  sacred  to  the 
sun-god,  67. 

Hairknot  constellation,  69. 

Hale,  Nathan,  166. 

Hamilcar,  137,  167. 

Hammurabi,  19,  119;  before  Sha- 
mash,   (Illus.),  170. 

Haiiior.     See  khamor. 

Hanina,  39. 

Haupt,  Paul,  59,  120. 

Hebrew  literature,  14  ff. 

Hebron,  48-49;  51,  82. 

Hendrich,   Herman,    139. 

Heracles,  a  servant,  140;  and  Her- 
cules, 119;  and  Samson,  119,  130; 
and  the  lion,  117;  crossing  the 
ocean,  129;  Oriental  origin  of,  18; 
Pillars  of,  108;  the  ideal,  132. 

Hercules  and  Heracles,  119. 

Herod,  44. 

Herodotus,   102,   136,   137. 

Hesperides,   Apples  of,   129. 

Hiding,  Samson  in,  95. 

Hierapolis,  68. 

Higher  Criticism,   158. 

Hilprecht,   163. 

Hirose,  166,  167. 

Historicity,  Local  coloring  main  arg- 
ument of,  38. 

History  in  myth,  3,  4. 

Hoffman,  G.,  95. 

Holy  men,  55  ff. 

Homer,  109,  165,  167. 

Honey,  76;  found  in  a  lion,  When  is, 
92. 

Hosea,  58. 

Ibrahim  Pasha,  45. 
Ichthys,  "fish,"  36. 

Immortality,  and  Izdubar,  128;  of 
sun-hero,  152. 


INDEX. 


l8l 


Indra,  95. 

Ishma'in,  39,  45. 

Israel,  Nomad  life  of,  72  f. 

Izdubar,  24,  122,  123;  and  immortal- 
ity, 128;  epic,  123  ff. ;  the  helper, 
120. 

Jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  79-80,  96. 

Jebel  el-Muntar,  51. 

Jehovah,  Origin  of  the  word,  61  f. 

Jeremiah,  62. 

Jesus   of    Nazareth,    149;    entry    into 

Jerusalem,   144  fif. 
Jhvh.     See  Yahveh. 
Jordan,  Sources  of  the,  22. 
Josiah,  King,  15. 
Judas,  140. 

Katte,  166. 

Khamor.    Pun   on,    lOl. 

Kid  offering,  54,  78;   Significance  of, 

59  f. 
Kronos  with   a   sickle-sword,   99,  100. 

Lehi,    45,    80;    Raid    of    Philistines 

upon,  79. 
Leo  the  Great,  134. 
Leshem,   Laish   called,   21. 
Lion   and   bee,   90;    and   the    dragon, 

117;   Samson  and  the,  75. 
Liusa,  21. 
Local   coloring,    117;   main   argument 

of  the  historicity,  38. 
Localization  of  myths,  8,   12. 
Lord's  supper,  143. 
Lucian,  68. 
Luther,  12. 

Mahaneh-Dan,  42  f. 

Manaoh,   52,   53 ;    Derivation  of,   43 ; 

Wife  of,  66. 
Marduk,    155. 
Masashige,  166,  167. 
Mass  in  honor  of  ass,  106. 
Meier,  E.,   102. 

Melkarth,   Resurrection   of,    136. 
"Messenger    of    Yahveh"    substituted 

for  Yahveh,  65. 
Messenger  of  Jhvh,  52-55. 
Micah,  the  Ephraimite,  20. 


Mithras,  123,  133. 

Mi.xture  of  fact  and  fancy,   173. 

Mullendorf,  Wilamowitz,  6. 

Moore,  G.  P.,  20,  52,  74,  102,  no. 

Monist,  The,  i  n.,  2. 

Moses  sees  the  back  parts  of  Yahveh, 
64;  Yahveh  appears  to,  61  ;  Yahveh 
converses  with,  63  f. ;  Yahveh 
sought  to  kill,  64. 

Muller,  O.,  136,  162. 

]Munchhausen,  14. 

Myth  in  history,  3,  8 ;  localized,  8,  12. 

Mythopcxic  Erudition,   161  ff.,   164. 

Napoleon,  i,  12,  164,  167. 

Nazarene,    Etymology    of    the    word, 

69,  71 ;    Paul   a  ring-leader  of,  71  ; 

perhaps   Nazirs,  71. 
Nazareth,  69-71. 
Nazir,    Apollo    as,    109;    Grape,    67; 

Meaning  of,  66 ;   Samson  a  typical, 

67. 
Nazirism,  Gentile,  67. 
Nazorean.     See  Nazarene. 
Nehemiah,   16. 
Nibelung  Saga,   12. 
Nimrod,   122,   123. 
Nothing  Particular,   171. 

Oanncs,  30  f. 

Odakon  and  Dagon,  31. 

Odysseus,  14,  168. 

One-eyed,   Sun-god   is,   no. 

Oriental  origin  of  Heracles,   18. 

Osiris,  12,  148-150. 

Ovid,  92. 

Pagan   tradition,   Samson   story   relic 

of.  n3. 
Pagans,  Devotion  of,  150. 
Paganism,    dignified,     157;    of    Dan, 

20  ff. ;    superseded    by    Christianity, 

159- 
Patrick,  St..  37. 
Paul,    "a    ring-leader    of    the    Naza- 

renes,"  71 ;  Vow  of,  68. 
Peisander,   130. 
Penitential   psalms.    150. 
Peres,   Satire  of,   164. 
Perseus,  97,  98. 


182 


THE  STORY  OF  SAMSON. 


Personal  equation  of  scholars,  7. 

Philistines,   18,  24,  25. 

Philo   Byblius,   32,   34. 

Pillars,    of   Hercules,    108;    The   two 

brazen,  107. 
Plutarch,  107. 
Polychrome    Bible,    17  n.,    20  n.,    74, 

102,   I  ID. 
Preller,  L.,  18,  92,  93  n. 
Prodicus,  130. 
Psalms,   Penitential,    150. 
Psyche,    152. 

Ra,  the  sun-god,   148  f. 

Ramath-lehi,  80,  96. 

Raphael,  75. 

Rechabites.  y2>- 

Redactor  of  the  Samson  legend,  154. 

Religion,  Comparative,  158;  will  re- 
main, 159. 

Reni,  Guido,   100,   loi. 

Riddle  of  Samson,  76 :  Solution  of, 
91. 

Riehm.  E.  C.  A.,  13. 

Roman  custom  of  chasing  foxes,  92. 

Roskoff,  Gustav,  4,  5,  7,  89,  90,  115. 

Rubens,  P.  P.,  54. 

Sacaean  festival,   141,   144. 

Samosata,  68. 

Samson,  a  servant,  140 ;  a  Nazir,  67 ; 
and  Heracles,  119,  130;  and  lion, 
75;  Birth  of,  52;  Death  of,  112; 
in  hiding,  95;  Last  prayer  of,  no; 
Life  of  (the  Biblical  account), 
74  ff. ;  Marriage  of,  74 ;  playing  the 
lute,  147 ;  prayer  for  water,  loi  ; 
presumably  son  of  Yahveh,  66; 
prototype  of  Christ,  134,  147,  Res- 
urrection of,  suppressed,  152;  Rid- 
dle of,  76 ;  Seven  Braids  of,  109 ; 
story,  a  torso,  155 ;  story,  relic  of 
pagan  tradition,  113;  The  name, 
24;  Tomb  of,  151;  Twelve  labors 
of,  89;  typifies  the  archaic  not  the 
later  purer  faith,  118;  visits  his 
wife,  78. 

Sardanapalus,   136. 

Saul  among  the  prophets,  59. 

Sayce,  A.  H.,  32-34. 


Schliemann,   165. 

Schnorr   von    Karolsfeld,   61,   80,   84, 

III. 
Science  not  a  human  invention,  158. 
Semiramis,  95. 
Seneca,  132. 
Servants,     Heracles,      Samson,     and 

Christ  as,  140. 
Seven,  114;  bow-strings,  115;  braids, 

83,    84,    108,    115;    -rayed    halo    of 

sun-god,   109. 
Shamash,  Hammurabi    before,  (Illus.) 

170;  the  sun-god,  (Illus.),  169. 
Shamat,  Well,  41. 
Shaving  the  head,  68. 
Shaw,  George,  W.,   i,  2,  161  fT.,  164. 
Shimshon,  24. 

Sicharbas,  i.  e.,  Sicliar  baal,  95. 
Sickle-sword,  97,  98. 
Siculus,   Diodorus,   loi. 
Siegfried,  and  the  dragon,  118;  Death 

of,  139. 
Simeon  the  Stylite,  104. 
Sinai,  Mount,  Yahveh's  residence,  63. 
Sitnapishtim,  127,  129. 
Smith,  W.   B.,  71,  72. 
Smith,  W.  Robertson,   104,   120,   136 
Snakes  of  St.  Patrick,  37. 
Sodomite,  57. 
Solution  of  riddle,  91. 
Spottcrucifix,   103. 
Spotted  Tail  plagiarizing  from  Ario- 

vistus,   166. 
Steinthal,  H.,  6,  7,  13,  60,  95,  130 
Strabo,  97. 

Strassmaier,  Epping  and,   126. 
Sumerians,  72. 
Sun,  in  the  psalms,  17;  one-eyed,  no; 

Resurrection  of  the,   133;   worship, 

Beth  Shemesh  place  of,  38. 

Tacitus,  104. 

Tammuz,  153.   154,  155. 

Tel  Amarna  tablets,  24. 

Tel  el  Kadi,  22. 

Tell,  William,   164,   168,   170,  171. 

Theophanies,  60  ff. 

Theotokos.   150. 

Thirty,   114. 

Tiamat,  98. 


INDEX. 


183 


Tibneh,  43. 
Timnath,  75. 
Tonsure,  69. 

Traditions,  tenacious,  144. 
Trojan  war,  164. 
Troy,   167. 

Trumbull,  M.  M.,  166. 
Twelve,   114,   115  ff.;   labors  of  Sam- 
son, 89. 
Typhon,   104. 

Vine-covered  tree,  8,  9. 
Vritra,   Tbe  monster,  95. 

Washington,  163. 
Web  of  Delilah,  84,  108. 
Wellhausen,  J.,   13,   17. 
Winckler,  Hugo,   10. 
Wizards  and  Witches,   153. 
Wolff,  162. 


Yahveh,  ass-headed,  102,  104;  comes 
over  Samson,  1 14 ;  converses  with 
Moses,  63 ;  Country  as  a  donation 
of,  y2\  Ezekiel's  description  of,  63; 
His  residence  Mount  Sinai,  63 ; 
Messengers  of,  52-55 ;  "Messen- 
ger" substituted  for,  65 ;  Moses 
sees  the  back  parts  of,  64 ;  Samson 
presumably  son  of,  66;  sought  to 
kill  Moses,  64;  is  stronger  than 
Dagan,  26-29. 

Yule  Tide,  133. 

Zebaoth,  62. 

Zechariah,  44. 

Zephaniah,  44. 

Zipporah,  64. 

Zodiac,   Babylonian,   126  ff. 

Zorah,  40,  52. 


D 1  €|  n  f    R 1*  ^  ^  #1  i  11 1¥   Comments    on    the    experiments    of 
M    lOAlt    KMK  ^%.\M.M.KW^    B  U  R  B  A  N  K  &  NILSSON.     By 

Hugo  DeVries,  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of  Amsterdam. 

Pages,  Xni  +  351.   114  Illustrations.  Printed  on  fine  enamel  paper.  Cloth, 

gilt  top,  $1.50  net;  $1.70  postpaid.     (7s.  6d.  net.) 


Under  the  influence  of  the  work  of  Nilsson,  Burbank,  and  others,  the  principle  of 
selection  has,  of  late,  changed  its  meaning  in  practice  in  the  same  sense  in  which  it  is 
changing  its  significance  in  science  by  the  adoption  of  the  theory  of  an  origin  of  species 
by  means  of  sudden  mutations.  The  method  of  slow  improvement  of  agricultural  varie- 
ties by  repeated  selection  is  losing  its  reliability  and  is  being  supplanted  by  the  discovery 
of  the  high  practical  value  of  the  elementary  species,  which  may  be  isolated  by  a  single 
choice.  The  appreciation  of  this  principle  will,  no  doubt,  soon  change  the  whole  aspect 
of  agricultural  plant  breeding. 

Hybridization  is  the  scientific  and  arbitrary  combination  of  definite  characters.  It 
does  not  produce  new  unit-characters;  it  is  only  the  combination  of  such  that  are  new. 
From  this  point  of  view  the  results  of  Burbank  and  others  wholly  agree  with  the  tlieory 
of  mutation,  which  is  founded  on  the  principle  of  the  unit-characters. 

This  far-reaching  agreement  between  science  and  practice  is  to  become  a  basis  for 
the  further  development  of  practical  breeding  as  well  as  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 
To  give  proof  of  this  assertion  is  the  main  aim  of  these  Essays. 

The  results  of  Nilsson  have  been  published  only  in  the  Swedish  language;  those  of 
Burbank  have  not  been  described  by  himself.  Prof.  DeVries's  arguments  for  the  tlieory 
of  mutation  have  been  embodied  in  a  German  book,  "Die  Mutationstheorie"  (2  vols. 
Leipsic,  Vat  &  Co.),  and  in  lectures  given  at  the  University  of  California  in  the  summer 
of  1904,  published  under  the  title  of  "Species  and  Varieties;  their  Origin  by  Mutation." 
A  short  review  of  them  will  be  found  in  the  first  chapter  of  these  Essays. 

Some  of  tliem  have  been  made  use  of  in  the  delivering  of  lectures  at  the  Universities 
of  California  and  of  Chicago  during  the  summer  of  1U06  and  of  addresses  before  various 
audiences  during  my  visit  to  the  United  States  on  that  occasion.  In  one  of  them(II.  D.), 
the  main  contents  have  been  incorporated  of  a  paper  read  before  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  at  their  meeting  in  honor  of  the  bicentennary  of  the  birth  of  their 
founder,  Benjamin  Franklin,  April,  1906. 

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Space  and  Geometry  in 
the  Liglit  oi  Pliysiolog- 
ical,  Psy etiological  and 
Ptiysical  Inquiry.    By 

Dr.  Ernst  Mach,  Emeritus  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Universitj'  of  Vienna. 
From  the  German  by  Thomas  J. 
McCormack,  Principal  of  the 
LaSalle-Peru  Township  High 
School.  1906.  Cloth,  gilt  top. 
Pp.143.     $1.00  net.      (5s.net.) 

In  these  essays  Professor  Mach  dis- 
cusses the  questions  of  the  nature,origin,and 
development  of  our  concepts  of  space  from 
the  three  points  of  view  of  the  physiology 
and  psychology  of  the  senses,  history,  and 
physics,  in  all  which  departments  his  pro- 
found researches  have  gained  for  him  an 
authoritative  and  commanding  position. 
"While  in  most  works  on  the  foundations  of 
geometry  one  point  of  view  only  is  empha- 
sized— be  it  that  of  logic,  epistemology,  psy- 
chology, history,  or  the  formal  technology 
of  the  science — here  light  is  shed  upon  the  subject  from  ah  points  of  view  combined, 
and  the  different  sources  from  which  the  many  divergent  forms  that  the  science  of 
space  has  historically  assumed,  are  thus  shown  forth  with  a  distinctness  and  precision 
that  in  suggestiveness  at  least  leave  little  to  be  desired. 

Any  reader  who  possesses  a  slight  knowledge  of  mathematics  may  derive  from 
these  essa3'S  a  very  adequate  idea  of  the  abstruse  yet  important  researches  of  meta- 
geometry. 


Tlie  Vocation  oi  Man.  By  Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte.  Translated 
by  William  Smith,  LL.  D.  Reprint  Edition.  With  biographical  intro- 
duction by  E.  Ritchie,  Ph.  D.  1906.  Pp.  185.  Cloth,  75c  net.  Paper,  25c; 
mailed,  31c.      (Is.  6d.) 

Everyone  familiar  with  the  history  of  German  Philosophy  recognizes  the  im- 
portance of  Fichte's  position  in  its  development.  His  idealism  was  the  best  exposition 
of  the  logical  outcome  of  Kant's  system  in  one  of  its  principal  aspects,  while  it  was 
also  the  natural  precurs  r  of  Hegel's  philosophy.  But  the  intrinsic  value  of  Fichte's 
writings  have  too  often  been  overlooked.  His  lofty  ethical  tone,  the  keenness  of  his  men- 
tal vision  and  the  purity  of  his  style  render  his  works  a  stimulus  and  a  source  of  satisfac- 
tion to  every  intelligent  reader.  Of  all  his  many  books,  that  best  adapted  to  excite  an 
interest  in  his  philosophic  thought  is  the  Vocation  of  Man,  which  contains  many  of  his 
most  fruitful  ideas  and  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  spirit  and  method  of  his  teaching. 

Tiie  Rise  Ol   Man.     a  sketch  of  the  Origin  of  the  Human  Race. 
By  Paul  Cams.    Illustrated.  1906.   Pp.100.  Boards,  cloth  back,  75c  net. 
(3s.  6d.  net.) 

Paul  Cams,  the  author  of  The  Rise  of  Man,  a  new  book  along  anthropological 
lines,  upholds  the  divinity  of  man  from  the  standpoint  of  evolution.  He  discusses  the 
anthropoid  apes,  the  relics  of  primitive  man,  especially  the  Neanderthal  man  and  the 
ape-man  of  DuBois,  and  concludes  with  a  protest  against  Huxley,  claiming  that  man  has 
risen  to  a  higher  level  not  by  cunning  and  ferocity,  but  on  the  contrary  by  virtue  of  his 
nobler  qualities. 


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The  Sermons  of  a  Buddhist  Abbot,  some  Addresses  on 
Religious  Subjects  by  the  Rt,  Rev.  Soyen  Shaku,  Abbot  of  Engakuji  and 
Kenchoji,  Kamakura,  Japan.  Translated  by  Daisetz  Teitaro  Suzuki. 
Pp.  218.     Cloth.     $1.00  net.      (4s.  6d.  net.) 

The  Sermons  of  a  Buddhist  Abbot,  which  were  delivered  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  Soyen 
Shaku,  during  the  author's  visit  to  this  country  in  1905-1906,  and  have  been  collected 
and  translated  and  edited  by  his  interpreter  and  friend,  Mr.  Daisetz  Teitaro  Suzuki, 


will  prove  fascinating  to  those  who  are  interested  in  the  comparative  study  of  religion 
as  well  as  in  the  development  of  Eastern  Asia.  Here  we  have  a  Buddhist  Abbot  holding 
a  high  position  in  one  of  the  most  orthodox  sects  of  Japan,  discoursing  on  problems  of 
ethics  and  philosophy  with  an  intelligence  and  grasp  of  the  subject  which  would  be 
rare  even  in  a  Christian  prelate. 

The   Praise   of   Hypocrisy.     An  Essay  in  Casuistry.     By  G.  T. 
Knight,  D.  D.,  Professor  of  Christian  Theology  in  Tufts  College  Divinity- 
School.     1906.     Pp.  86.     50c  net. 

"The  Praise  of  Hypocrisy"  is  an  essay  based  on  the  pul)lic  confessions  of  hypocrisy 
that  manv  champions  of  religion  have  made  in  these  days,  and  on  the  defenses  they  have 
put  forth'  in  support  of  the  practice  of  deceit.  Not  that  the  sects  now  accuse  each  other 
of  insinceritv,  nor  that  the  scoffer  vents  his  disgust  for  all  religion,  but  that  good  men 
(as  all  must  regard  them)  in  high  standing  as  church  members  have  accused  them- 
selves. 

By  exhibiting  the  implications  and  tendencies  of  the  ethics  thus  professed  and 
defended,  and  by  sharp  comment  on  the  same,  the  author  of  this  essay  designs  to 
arouse  the  conscience  of  the  church,  to  sting  it  into  activity  in  a  region  of  life  where  its 
proper  functions  have  ceased. 

This  is  not  an  attack  on  the  church,  nor  even  a  mere  criticism ;  it  is  the  language 
of  righteous  indignation  hopefully  summoning  the  church  to  be  honest  with  itself,  to  be 
loval  and  faithful  to  its  master. 


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Essay  on  the  Creative 
Imagination.  By  Prof.  Th. 

Ribot.  Translated  from  the 
French  by  A.  H.  N.  Baron,  Fel- 
low in  Clark  Universitv.  1906. 
Cloth,  gilt  top.  Pp.  357.  $1.75 
net.      (7s.  6d.  net.) 

Imagination  is  not  the  possession 
only  of  the  inspired  few,  but  i?  a  func- 
tion of  the  mind  common  to  all  men  in 
some  degree ;  and  mankind  has  displaj-ed 
as  much  imagination  in  practical  life  as 
in  its  more  emotional  phases — in  mech- 
anical, military,  industrial,  and  commer- 
cial mventions,  in  religious,  and  political 
institutions  as  well  as  in  the  sculpture, 
painting,  poetry  and  song.  This  is 
the  central  thought  in  the  new  book  of 
Th.  Ribot,  the  well-known  psychologist, 
modestly  entitled  An  Essay  on  the 
Creative  Imagination. 

It  is  a  classical  exposition  of  a  branch 
of  psychology  which  has  often  been  dis- 
cussed, but  perhaps  never  before  in  a 
thoroughly  scientific  manner.     Although 

the  purely  reproductive  imagination  has  been  studied  with  considerable  enthusiasm  from 
time  to  time,  the  creative  or  constructive  variety  has  been  generally  neglected  and  is 
popularly  supposed  to  be  confined  within  the  limits  of  esthetic  creation. 


"^'*  l^nilaren.  Hints  from  Practical  Experience  for  Parents  and 
Teachers.     By  Paul  Carus.     Pp.207.     ;?1.00  net.      (4s.6d.net.) 

In  the  little  book  Our  Children,  Paul  Carus  offers  a  unique  contribution  to  peda- 
gogical literature.  Without  any  theoretical  pretensions  it  is  a  strong  defense  for  the 
rights  of  the  child,  dealing  with  the  responsibilities  of  parenthood,  and  with  the  first 
inculcation  of  fundamental  ethics  in  the  child  mind  and  the  true  principles  of  correc- 
tion and  guidance.  Each  detail  is  forcefully  illustrated  by  informal  incidents  from  the 
author's  experience  with  his  own  children,  and  his  suggestions  will  prove  of  the  greatest 
possible  value  to  young  mothers  and  kindergartners.  Hints  as  to  the  first  acquaintance 
with  all  branches  of  knowledge  are  touched  upon — mathematics,  natural  sciences,  for- 
eign languages,  etc. — and  practical  wisdom  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  money, 
hygiene,  and  similar  problems. 

Yin  Cllitl  Wen,  The  Tract  of  the  Quiet  Way.  With  Extracts  from 
the  Chinese  commentary.  Translated  by  Teitaro  Suzuki  and  Dr.  Paul 
Carus.     1906.     Pp.  48.     25c  net. 

This  is  a  collection  of  moral  injunctions  which,  among  the  Chinese  is  second 
perhaps  only  to  the  Kan-Ying  P'ien  in  popularity,  and  yet  so  far  as  is  known  to  the 
publishers  this  is  the  first  translation  that  has  been  made  into  any  Occidental  language. 
It  is  now  issued  as  a  companion  to  the  T'ai-Shang  Kan-Ying  P'ien,  although  it  does 
not  contain  either  a  facsimile  of  the  text  or  its  verbatim  translation.  The  original 
consists  of  the  short  tract  itself  which  is  here  presented,  of  glosses  added  by  commen- 
tators, which  form  a  larger  part  of  the  book,  and  finally  a  number  of  stories  similar 
to  those  appended  to  the  Kan-Ying  P'ien,  which  last,  however,  it  has  not  seemed  worth 
while  to  include  in  this  version.  The  translator's  notes  are  of  value  in  justifying  cer- 
tain readings  and  explaining  allusions,  and  the  book  is  provided  with  an  index.  The 
frontispiece,  an  artistic  outline  drawing  by  Shen  Chin-Ching,  represents  Wen  Ch'ang, 
one  of  the  highest  divinities  of  China,  revealing  himself  to  the  author  of  the  tract. 

The  motive  of  the  tract  is  that  of  practical  morality.  The  maxims  give  definite 
instructions  in  regard  to  details  of  man's  relation  to  society,  besides  more  general  com- 
mands of  universal  ethical  significance,  such  as  "Live  in  concord,"  "Forgive  malice,"  and 
"Do  not  assert  with  your  mouth  what  your  heart  denies." 


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T'ai-Shang  Kan-Ylng  P'icn,  Treatise  of  the  Exalted  One  on  Re- 
sponse and  Retribution.  Translated  from  the  Chinese  by  Teitaro  Suzuki 
and  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  Containing  Chinese  Text,  Verbatim  Translation, 
Explanatory  Notes  and  Moral  Tales.  Edited  by  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  16 
plates.     Pp.  135.     1906.     Boards,  YSc  net. 

The  book  contains  a  critical  and  descriptive  introduction,  and  the  entire  Chinese 
text  in  large  and  distinct  characters  with  the  verbatim  translation  of  each  page  ar- 
ranged on  the  opposite  page  in  corresponding  vertical  columns.  This  feature  makes  the 
book  a  valuable  addition  to  the  number  of  Chinese-English  text-books  already  avail- 
able. The  text  is  a  facsimile  reproduction  from  a  collection  of  Chinese  texts  inade  in 
Japan  by  Chinese  scribes. 

After  the  Chinese  text  follows  the  English  translation  giving  references  to  the 
corresponding  characters  in  the  Chinese  original,  as  well  as  to  the  explanatory  notes 
immediately  following  the  English  version.  These  are  very  full  and  explain  the  sig- 
nificance of  allusions  in  the  Treatise  and  compare  different  translations  of  disputed 
passages.  This  is  the  first  translation  into  English  directly  from  the  Chinese  original, 
though  it  was  rendered  into  French  by  Stanislas  Julicn,  and  from  his  French  edition 
into  English  by  Douglas. 

A  number  of  illustrative  stories  are  appended  in  all  the  editions  of  the  original, 
but  the  selection  of  these  stories  seems  to  vary  in  the  different  editions.  They  are  very 
inferior  in  intrinsic  value  to  the  Treatise  itself,  and  so  are  represented  here  only  by 
extracts  translated  in  part  directly  from  the  Chinese  edition  and  in  part  through  the 
French  of  Julien,  but  many  are  illustrated  by  reproductions  of  the  Chinese  pictures 
from  the  original  edition.  The  frontispiece  is  a  modern  interpretation  by  Keichyu 
Yamada  of  Lao  Tze,  the  great  Oriental  philosopher,  "The  Exalted  One"  to  whom  the 
authorship  of  this  Treatise  is  ascribed. 


Spinoza  and  Religion,     a  study  of  Spinoza's  Metaphysics  and  of 

his  particular  utterances  in  regard     to  religion,  with  a  view  to  determining 

the  significance  of  his  thought  for  religion  and  incidentally  his  personal 

attitude  toward  it.  By  Elmer  Ellsworth 
Powell,  A.  M.,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of 
Philosophy  in  Miami  University.  1906. 
Pp.  xi,  344.     $1.50    net.      (7s.  6d.) 

Spinoza  has  been  regarded  for  centuries 
as  the  most  radical  philosopher,  yet  he  had  a 
reverential  attitude  toward  religion  and  prom- 
inent thinkers  such  as  Goethe  looked  up  to  him 
as  their  teacher  in  both  metaphysics  and  religion. 
Professor  E.  E.  Powell,  of  Miami  University, 
feels  that  there  has  been  great  need  to  have 
Spinoza's  philosophy  and  attitude  toward  re- 
ligion set  forth  by  a  competent  hand,  and,  ac- 
cordingly, he  has  undertaken  the  task  with  a 
real  love  of  his  subject,  and  has  indeed  ac- 
complislied  it  with  success. 


THE   OPEN   COURT   PUBLISHING   CO..   1522   Wabash  Ave..  Chicago 


Aristotle  on  His  Prede- 
cessors* Being  the  first  book 
of  his  metaph5'sics.  Translated 
from  the  text  of  Christ,  with  intro- 
duction and  notes.  By  A.  E. 
Taylor,  M.  A.,  Fellow  of  Merton 
College,  Oxford;  Frothingham 
Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Mc- 
Gill  University,  Montreal.  Pp. 
160.  Cloth,  75c  net.  Paper,  35c 
postpaid. 

This  book  will  be  welcome  to  all 
teachers  of  philosophy,  for  it  is  a  transla- 
tion made  by  a  competent  hand  of  the 
most  important  essay  on  the  history  of 
Gretk  thought  down  to  Aristotle,  written 
by  Aristotle  himself.  The  original  served 
this  great  master  with  his  unprecedented 
encyclopedic  knowledge  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  his  Metaphysics;  but  it  is  quite 
apart  from  the  rest  of  that  work,  forming 
an  independent  essay  in  itself,  and  will  re- 
main forever  the  main  source  ofourinfor- 
mation  on  the  predecessors  of  Aristotle. 
Considering  the  importance  of  the  book,  it  is  strange  that  no  translation  of  it  appears 
to  have  been  made  since  the    publication  of  that  by  Bekker  in  183 1. 

The  present  translation  has  been  made  from  the  latest  and  most  critical  Greek  text 
available,  the  second  edition  of  W.  Christ,  and  pains  have  been  taken  not  only  to  repro- 
duce it  in  readable  English,  but  also  to  indicate  the  exact  way  in  which  the  translator 
understands  every  word  and  clause  of  the  Greek.  He  has  further  noted  all  the  im- 
portant divergencies  between  the  readings  of  Christ's  text  and  the  editions  of  Zellar 
and  Bonitz,  the  two  chief  modern  German  exponents  of  Aristotelianism. 

Not  the  least  advantage  of  the  present  translation  is  the  incorporation  of  the  trans- 
lator's own  work  and  thought.  He  has  done  his  best,  within  the  limited  space  he  has 
allowed  himself  for  explanations,  to  provide  the  student  with  ample  means  of  judging 
for  himself  in  the  light  of  the  most  recent  researches  in  Greek  philosophical  literature, 
the  value  of  Aristotle's  account  of  previous  thought  as  a  piece  of  historical  criticism. 

Zarathushtra,  Pliilo,  tlie  Achaemenids  and  Israel. 

A  Treatise  Upon  the  Antiquity  and  Influence  of  the  Avesta.  By  Dr. 
Lawrence  H.  Mills,  Professor  of  Zend  Philology  in  the  University  of 
Oxford.     1906.     Pp.  460.     Cloth,  gilt  top.     $4.00  net. 

Professor  Lawrence  H.  Mills,  the  great  Zendavesta  scholar  of  Oxford,  England,  has 
devoted  his  special  attention  to  an  investigation  and  comparison  of  the  relations  that 
obtain  between  our  own  religion,  Christianity — including  its  sources  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment scriptures — and  the  Zendavesta,  offering  the  results  of  his  labors  in  a  new  book 
that  is  now  being  published  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company,  under  the  title, 
"Zarathushtra,  Philo,  the  Achaemenids  and  Israel,  a  Treatise  upon  the  Antiquity  and 
Influence  of  the  Avesta."  We  need  scarcely  add  that  this  subject  is  of  vital  importance 
in  theology,  for  the  influence  of  Persia  on  Israel  and  also  on  the  foundation  of  the 
Christian  faith  has  been  paramount,  and  a  proper  knowledge  of  its  significance  is  in- 
dispensable for  a  comprehension  of  the  origin  of  our  faith. 

Babel  and  Bible*     Three  Lectures  on  the  Significance  of  Assyrio- 
logical  Research  for  Religion,  Embodying  the  most  important  Criticisms 
and  the  Author's  Replies.    By  Dr.  Friedrich  Delitzsch,  Professor  of  Assyr- 
iology  in  the  University  of  Berlin.     Translated  from  the  German.     Pro- 
fusely illustrated.     1906.     Pp.  xv,  240.     $1.00  net. 
A  new  edition  of  "Babel  and  Bible,"  comprising  the  first,  second  and  third  lectures 
by  Dr.  Friedrich  Delitzsch,  complete  with  discussions  and  the  author's  replies,  has  been 
published  by  The  Open   Court   Publishing  Company,  making  a  stately  volume  of  255 
pages. 


THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  CO^  1522   Wabash  Ave..  Chicago 


The  Story  of  Samson  ;^"'' ''^  ^,^^"  '"  ,";^  ^^"f 

■^  lous  Development  of  Mankind. 

By   Paul   Carus.       80    illustrations.      Pp.    183.     Comprehensive   index. 

Boards,  $1.00  net.      (4s.  6d.  net.) 

Dr.  Carus  contends  that  Samson's  prototype  is  to  be  found  in  those  traditions  of  all  prim- 
itive historical  peoples  which  relate  to  a  solar  deity.  He  believes  that  genuine  tradition,  no 
matter  how  mythological,  is  more  conservative  than  is  at  first  apparent.  Though  the  bibli- 
cal account  of  Samson's  deeds,  like  the  twelve  labors  of  Heracles,  is  the  echo  of  an  ancient 
solar  epic  which  glorifies  the  deeds  of  Shamash  in  his  migration  through  the  twelve  signs  of 
the  zodiac,  there  may  have  been  a  Hebrew  hero  whose  deeds  reminded  the  Israelites  of  Sha- 
mash, and  so  his  adventures  were  told  with  modifications  which  naturally  made  the  solar 
legends  cluster  about  his  personality. 

References  are  fully  given,  authorities  quoted  and  comparisons  are  carefully  drawn  be- 
tween Samson  on  the  one  hand,  and  Heracles,  Shamash,  Melkarth  and  Siegfried  on  the 
other.  The  appendix  contains  a  controversy  between  Mr.  Geo.  W.  Shaw  and  the  author  in 
which  is  discussed  at  some  length  the  relation  between  myth  and  history. 

^1^|T|^C|A    X'llOllCffllt   ^^  Exposition  of  the  Main  Character- 

*'  istic  Features  of  the  Chinese  World- 

Conception.     By  Paul  Carus.     Being  a  continuation  of  the  author's  essay, 
Chinese  Philosophy.     Illustrated.    Index.     Pp.  1U5.    $1.00  net.    (4s.  6d.) 

This  book  contains  much  that  is  of  very  great  interest  in  the  development  of  Chinese 
culture.  Beginning  in  the  first  chapter  with  a  study  of  the  earliest  modes  of  thought-com- 
munication among  primitive  people  of  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  tracing  the  growth  of 
the  present  system  of  Chinese  caligraphy.  In  "Chinese  Occultism"  some  interesting  Oriental 
mystical  ideas  are  explained  as  well  as  the  popular  methods  of  divination  by  means  of  tri- 
grams  and  the  geomancer's  compass.  In  a  special  chapter  the  zodiacs  of  different  nations 
are  compared  with  reference  to  the  Chinese  zodiac  and  also  to  a  possible  common  Babylon- 
ian origin.  This  chapter  contains  many  rare  and  valuable  illustrations  representing  almost 
all  known  zodiacs  from  those  of  Egypt  to  the  natives  of  the  Western  hemisphere.  The  in- 
fluence of  Confucius  is  discussed,  and  a  hurried  recapitulation  of  the  most  important  points 
in  Chinese  history  is  given  together  with  a  review  of  the  long  novel  which  stands  in  the  place 
of  a  national  epic.  Chinese  characteristics  and  social  conditions  have  their  place  in  this 
volume  as  well  as  the  part  played  in  China  by  Christian  missions,  and  the  introduction  of 
Western  commercialism.  The  author's  object  is  to  furnish  the  necessary  material  for  a  psy- 
chological appreciation  of  the  Chinese  by  sketching  the  main  characteristic  features  of  the 
ideas  which  dominate  Chinese  thought  and  inspire  Chinese  morality,  hoping  thereby  to  con- 
tribute a  little  toward  the  realization  of  peace  and  good  will  upon  earth. 

Chinese  Life  and  Customs  ^Jt^,^:i; 

by  Chinese  artists.     Pp.  114.     Y5c.  net.      (3s.  6d.  net.) 

This  book  is  little  more  than  a  compilation  of  Chinese  illustrations  accompanied  with  only 
as  much  text  as  will  suffice  to  explain  them,  and  what  further  material  has  been  added  is 
merely  in  the  way  of  quotations  from  Chinese  literature.  The  intention  is  to  make  the 
Chinese  people  characterize  themselves  by  word  and  picture.  Child  rhymes,  love  lyrics  and 
songs  of  revelry  are  introduced  in  translation  from  Chinese  poetry  which  is  recognized  as 
classical.  The  illustrations  which  form  the  great  body  of  the  book  are  from  the  most  authen- 
tic Chinese  source  of  information  concerning  modern  life  in  China  unaffected  by  the  aggres- 
sive Occidental  foreigners.  The  book  is  divided  into  chapters  on  "Annual  Festivals," 
"Industries  and  Foreign  Relations,  "  "Confucianism  and  Ancestor  Worship,"  "Taoism  and 
Buddhism,"  "Childhood  and  Education,"  "Betrothal  and  Marriage,"  "Social  Customs  and 
Travels,"  "Sickness  and  Death." 

THE   OPEN   COURT   PUBLISHING   CO..  1522    Wabash   Ave..  Chicago 


Our  Children 

Hints  from  Practical  Experience  for 
Parents  and  Teachers.  By  Paul  Carus 

Pp.    207.     $1.00   net.     (4s.  6d.    net) 

In  the  little  book  Our  Children,  Paul  Carus  offers  a  unique  contribution  to  peda- 
gogical literature.  Without  any  theoretical  pretensions  it  is  a  strong  defense  for 
the  rights  of  the  child,  dealing  with  the  responsibilities  of  parenthood,  and  with 
the  first  inculcation  of  fundamental  ethics  in  the  child  mind  and  the  true  principles 
of  correction  and  guidance.  Each  detail  is  forcefully  illustrated  by  informal 
incidents  irom  the  author's  experience  with  his  own  children,  and  his  suggestions 
will  prove  of  the  greatest  possible  value  to  young  mothers  and  kindergartners. 
Hints  as  to  the  first  acquaintance  with  all  branches  of  knowledge  are  touched 
upon  —  mathematics,  natural  sciences,  foreign  languages,  etc. —  and  practical 
wisdom  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  money,   hygiene  and  similar   problems. 


PRESS   NOTICES 

"Brightly  written,  broad-minded,  instructive,  this  book  deserves  serious  perusal  and  praise." 

—CHICAGO  RECORD-HERALD. 

"  'Our  Children'  has  a  value  which  it  is  difficult  to  exaggerate.  The  strong  common  sense  of 
the  book  as  a  whole  can  better  be  judged  from  an  e.xtract  than  from  any  praise  of  it,  however 
particularized. 

"It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  anything  coming  up  in  relation  of  parent  or  teacher  to  a  child 
which  does  not  find  discussion  or  suggestion  in  this  compact  and  helpful  little  book.  It  will  be 
an  aid  to  parents  and  teachers  everywhere— an  education  for  them  no  less  than  for  the  child." 

—THE  CHICAGO  DAILY  NEWS. 

"From  my  own  personal  point  of  view  I  can  only  welcome  this  volume  in  our  pedagogical 
literature  and  express  the  hope  that  it  may  become  a  household  book  in  the  library  of  every 
parent  and  teacher."  M.  P.  E.  GROSZMANN.  Pd.  D.. 

Director  Groszmann  School  for  Nervous  Children 

"Mr.  Carus  writes  in  a  most  practical  manner  upon  his  subject,  setting  before  the  reader  the 
various  problems  common  to  all  parents  in  dealing  with  their  offspring.  This  book  is  admirable 
throughout  in  the  author's  treatment  of  his  subjects,  as  the  book  is  built  from  the  experiences 
of  parents  and  teachers  and,  therefore,  cannot  fail  to  be  practicable." 

—THE  BOSTON  HERALD. 

"For  the  training  of  children  I  know  of  no  book  in  which  there  is  so  much  value  in  a  small 
compass  as  in  this."  -THE  TYLER  PUBLISHING  CO. 

"Little  things  are  recommended  that  will  appeal  to  the  child's  understanding  and  add  to  his 
interest  in  his  work."  -CLEVELAND  PLAIN  DEALER. 

"Its  author  has  given  to  the  world  a  careful,  loving,  thoughtful  set  of  rules  which  may  be  used 
with  profit  in  the  bringing  up  of  the  young." 

—THE  MANTLE,  TILE  AND  GRATE  MONTHLY. 

"We  feel  certain  that  any  parent  who  thoughtfully  reads  and  studies  this  book  will  be  richly 
paid;  and  if  the  readers  be  parents  with  growing  children  they  will  keep  the  book  by  them  for 
frequent  consultation;  not  for  iron  rules  but  for  sympathetic  suggestion." 

—THE  COMMERCIAL  NEWS  (Danville,  111.) 

"At  once  the  reader  knows  that  he  is  in  touch  with  a  mind  that  is  accustomed  to  sincere  and 
deep  thinking.  The  whole  book  is  a  plea  for  a  serious  notion  of  parenthood.  The  author  touches 
one  topic  after  another  with  a  fine  sense  of  feeling  for  the  'warm  spot'  in  it. 

"The  use  of  money,  square  dealing,  worldly  prudence,  sympathy  with  animals,  treatment  of  a 
naughty  child,  self  criticism,  and  punishment,  are  some  of  the  more  important  themes  of  the 
book."  —THE  SUBURBAN. 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.  ,1322  ff^abashAve. ,  Chicago 


Date  Due 


,  m^ 


m^smMi^ 


iR.B.i»y#§^ 


BS1305.C329 

The  story  of  Samson  and  its  place  in  the 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00033  8790 


